Sword Art Online's Champion in Middle Earth
by Forever hero girl
Summary: Kirito expected to either wake up or die after the world of Sword Art Online finished deleting. He did not, however, expect to wake up in another world that was certainly not his. Was he in another world or some other game? It's hard to tell, but one thing's for sure, Kirito must help Complete the quest to destroy the Ring or he isn't going home. Ever.
1. AN

**Hey guys.**

 **So, upon reading this several days after finishing it, I've realized that...it's not actually all that good and i could have done so much more. I wrote this really,** ** _really_** **fast due to a random bout of inspiration, and didn't really think it totally out, which is why it's not as creative as it could have been and i didn't do much editing after i finished it for some reason.**

 **So, i'm rewriting it, adding in several more aspects to make it a better read that actually integrates Kirito into the story a lot more.**

 **I'll leave this version of the story up until i re-complete the Fellowship of the Ring, then you can come back and re-read the better version that will have more content and twists and changes to both the LOTR movie-verse story and the Sword Art Online Anime, that i neglected here and then you can come back and tell me what you did and didn't like about the new version and place some ideas for the future movies if you like.**

 **Thanks for reading this AN and we'll see how long the better version takes to get out.**

 **Thank you.**

 **-Forever Hero Girl.**

 **UPDATE AS OF MAY 30TH 2017:**

 **The first chapter of the new story is up. It's called: Champions of Aincrad and Middle Earth**

 **So go check it out. It's just the first chapter, but it's far better than this story. The rest of it will come soon.**

 **As for this story... after i post another chapter or two of the better version, it is going to be deleted as it's really not all that good and the better version is up.**

 **Thank you. Trust me the other one is way better cause it's not going to be written in a single day.**


	2. Chapter 1

**I have about five billion other stories I should be writing and yet I chose to write this instead. All of the first movie is done and broken into chapters I'll put up at the same time. Hope you like. Remember that I like reviews and stuff.**

Kirito did it. He beat the Game. He defeated Sword Art Online and its psycho creator, Kayaba Akihiko.

But of the 10,000 people who had been stuck in the game, just over 4,000 of them had died. Both in the game and IRL.

Among them, was both Kirito and Asuna.

Or so everyone thought. Kirito discovered Akihiko's ruse, and agreed to fight him despite his friends screaming for him not to. It didn't go to well.

In the last second of the final battle, the final duel between Kirito and Kayaba Akihiko, Asuna somehow managed to overpower and break the paralysis Kayaba had placed on her and put herself between Kirito and a blow that would have ended Kirito's life, ending her's instead.

For a while after her death, Kirito was completely numb in shock.

"Hmm, I don't think I programmed a way for players to overcome paralysis," Kayaba had mused to himself, "Oh well, things happen sometimes."

He didn't even seemed phased by the fact he had just killed a girl who interrupted his duel. In fact, he had the nerve to be amused by the situation. That pissed pretty much everyone in the room off.

After that, Kirito had numbly picked up Asuna's sword she dropped after her avatar shattered and took a few clumsy swings at the creator.

And then Kirito died. A sword straight through his heart. His HP was completely depleted. His health bar disappeared, the "You are Dead" sign flashed in his vision, then his avatar shattered into a million pieces, just like everyone else's did when they died.

But Kayaba Akihiko had made a mistake in his plan to keep the players in his world. He bound their consciousness into the game, and therefore, to an extent, their souls. Under normal circumstances, this would never happen, but after being in the game for more than 2 years now, all players were strongly bound to the game.

Especially someone like Kirito. And for someone like Asuna. And for someone like Klein.

And that's what allowed one last anomaly within the game to happen.

Kirito didn't die when his avatar shattered. Instead, he came right back, through sheer force of will and stubbornness and determination, and stabbed Kayaba Akihiko in the chest with Asuna's blade –well many still believe it was through sheer force of will. But the truth, Klein never used the revival item Kirito had so numbly handed over to him during their first Christmas in the game. Not until that moment.

Seconds after, Kirito and Akihiko disappeared from the boss room, seemingly, they both shattered- for a second time in Kirito's case. The announcement was made that "On November 7th at 2:55 PM, the game has been cleared," reverberated on all the levels for all the players to hear and rejoice. The players were all released from the game. They were free.

It was over.

The next thing Kirito knew, he woke up on a glass-like platform floating an evening sky, overlooking the metal castle that had been their home and prison for over 2 years, falling apart into nothing. Supposedly like an end credits scene.

Asuna was there too. Together, they watched the castle fall apart, including their little cabin they had bought together as a temporary home. It was sad, yet happy at the same time.

Kayaba was there too, but he was no longer in the disguise of his avatar Commander Heathcliff, but a simple man with brown hair in a simple white lab coat.

He explained that the SAO database was deleting everything and the world would disappear forever and the 5,947 players who had survived up to that point had been logged out. He couldn't explain why he did this to them though other than a dream he's had since he was young. He congratulated them on clearing the game.

Then, he just disappeared.

The two of them didn't know what was going to happen next; wake up or die. No one else was up there, just the three of them who had been the last to die in the game.

They had already told each other their full real names and ages long ago, though Asuna had the same name IRL. They exchanged heartfelt apologies and goodbyes and said I love you and promised to find each other if they woke. Then they shared a kiss and hugged and cried on each other's shoulders until their time also came to disappear as the SAO world was finished delating itself.

With one last explosion of white light, it was all over.

 ** _And this is where the next story begins…._**

When Kirito finally lost consciousness after the SAO universe self-deleted, he expected to either die then go to whatever afterlife existed, hopefully alongside Asuna, or wake up from the 2 year long full-dive death gaming experience and take off his nerve gear and then go find Asuna.

When he did wake up, he felt tired. In the corner of his eye, he could see his health bar was just below the green zone, but would be all the way up soon.

Wait, his health bar?

He looked at his hands and body and realized he was still wearing his black coat and clothes he had been in Sword Art Online, and his black sword was safely in its sheath on his back.

He looked around himself. It was dark, the sun had just set, and the light he had came from the full moon and stars above him, which looked refreshingly different that the skies of SAO. He appeared to be right next to some sort of ruined watchtower.

Kirito frowned. Why was he here?

He couldn't be in SAO still, he had watched- had been in the game himself as it self-deleted. SAO was gone. But this wasn't home, a hospital or what he imagined an afterlife would be like. It was just some rocky plains and a tower of ruined rocks.

Out of curiosity, he swiped his right hand down, and his game menu appeared. Where the title of Sword Art Online used to be in the game title slot, there was nothing. He went into settings and opened it.

His frown deepened.

There was a button where the Logout Button was supposed to be.

But it said Login instead of Logout.

That couldn't be right. You can't log into anything from inside another game. He would have to be in the nerve gear start up screen, right after loading a game, right after staying "Link, Start," to log into anything.

And yet, the button said Login.

He pressed it out of pure curiosity.

A screen appeared that said;

"Unable to Login. Please correct 2 errors first."

The only button he could push from there was the Okay button and the screen disappeared.

"What errors?" Kirito wondered aloud.

He tried the Login button once more, but with the same results. He wasn't getting anywhere with that. He sighed and closed it.

Then he went into his item storage and found that he had almost all the items had had in SAO, well, except his teleportation crystals- those were all missing, probably because any of the places they could have been programmed to go had been deleted along with SAO.

His blueish-green long blade, Dark Repulsor that had broken in his fight with Kayaba was there too… he brought it out temporarily. It was still broken. At least half of the blade was shattered into several small pieces.

He sighed again. He didn't have the skill nor materials to fix swords and even if he did, it was beyond repair. He was surprised it hadn't just shattered into polygons yet like most broken swords did. But he would keep it still for the metal was rare and could come in use some day.

He put the broken sword back in the item storage. He was about to close the item menu when he noticed something else in there. It was…

… Asuna's Rapier. Why would-

Oh. Of course. They entered a relationship in SAO. They had access to each other's item inventories.

 **(BTW, because I feel like it, I'm changing SAO's marriage function to relationship because I think it fits better to Kirito and Asuna's relationship and doesn't seem as rushed if they are in a romantic relationship rather than full out marriage, Sorry to those who disagree.)**

But if he had access to her inventory through his that meant that her nerve gear was still functioning and hadn't killed her. Maybe she was somewhere in this world too.

 _"_ _Or,"_ Kirito suddenly thought pessimistically, _"All her items just transferred into my storage when she died… no! She's not dead! She's either in here with me or logged out and has woken up!"_ He reprimanded himself. Asuna was NOT dead.

Once again, he was about to close his menu, when he noticed a "2 new" icon over his skills.

He opened his skills menu.

He still had all of his SAO skills. The Duel Blade, his normal sword skills and everything else, but all the numbers seemed to be glitching out. And at the end of the list were two skills that hadn't been there before and Kirito had never heard of either of them.

The first was called "Shock Resistant." He clicked it and found himself frowning again.

 _"_ _This skill is designed to prevent the injured player from going into shock due to physical injuries. Pain will still be felt, but to a lesser extent and the player has a next to nothing chance of falling into shock due to physical pain levels. Also increases healing ability."_

Why would he need a skill to prevent him from going into shock from feeling pain? He was still in a full-dive. The closest he could get to feeling pain while wearing nerve-gear was fatigue from lack of rest or low HP and on super bad "injuries" gotten in game would sometimes give the area of injury that tingling feeling like you got when a limb fell asleep, and only until your HP restored itself, and it was easy to ignore once you got used to it with all the injuries Kirito had taken while fighting on SAO's frontlines.

With a start, Kirito realized he hadn't actually felt real physical pain for more than two years now.

Out of curiosity-and a bit of stupidity- Kirito reached back for his sword, but instead of drawing it, he purposely pricked his finger on the sharp part of the decorative/probably has a purpose but the author dost know it part of the sword above the hilt and pricked his finger on it.

He flinched.

It had hurt a little.

Damn. That was going to take some getting used to. But at least he had something that would prevent him from going into shock. But it also looked like a slash to the side would mean a lot more in this game that it would have in SAO. He'd have to be more careful.

He looked at his slightly bleeding pointer finger. Blood was something he hadn't seen in a while. Though if he looked very closely, he could barely make out the red mesh like material that was what would usually be the only thing in sight with an open wound in the SAO world. It was harder to see than normal.

 _"_ _Wherever I am, it must have some gore graphics in it then too in order make the pain more realistic,"_ Kirito thought. He would deal with this later. For now….

…What was the other skill he had gotten?

Scanning In.

 _"_ _This skill is designed to allow the player to scan objects not compatible with current software into their inventory. Error items cannot be scanned. Large items may not be scanned in either. Must be within parameters."_

What?

Shouldn't he just be able to put any object or item in his inventory that was inside parameters without scanning?

The questions were piling up too quickly.

Why hadn't he woken up or died? Where was he? Why did the button say Login? What errors did he need to fix? How could he feel pain and bleed while he was wearing nerve gear? Why would he need a skill to scan incompatible items into his software when he was already inside software? Why are all his numbers on his stats glitching out? Why would he even be here if there were things incompatible with the software? Where did he even get those skills from? Why was Asuna's sword in the inventory instead of by her side? Was Asuna even in whatever world Kirito was? And what about Kayaba Akihiko, what happened to him?

He pulled up his friend list and his few friends' icons and names he had were still there, but he found that the messaging and chat buttons were non-existent. He could still make recorded messages, but he couldn't contact anyone.

"Damn it, what the hell is going on?" Kirito muttered to himself.

He was so looking forwards to getting back to reality, but it looked like he left one game he couldn't escape from and managed to go into another- except now he could feel pain.

And at least in SAO he knew the objective to get out. Here, he didn't even know what the errors he had to fix were, and if he did manage to fix them, what would logging in even do? There was no Aincrad to return to.

He needed answers, but his player scans weren't showing any players or NPCs in sight. He was in the middle of nowhere.

He closed the game menu and looked over to the ruins. Maybe he could find some answers there.

Suddenly, there was a blade at his throat. Someone was right behind him. They must have had really good stealth skills for Kirito not to detect them.

On instinct, Kirito's hand shot up and grasped the hilt of his sword but the blade at his throat got closer to his skin and the person behind him grabbed his wrist in a strong grasp, preventing him from drawing his sword more than a millimeter.

"What is a boy doing out by the ruins of Weathertop alone?" a male's voice asked him.

"Depends on what you're doing out here alone," Kirito replied on autopilot.

The grip on his wrist tightened painfully, causing Kirito to wince, then the voice said angrily, "Do not play games with me, boy."

"Well, you know, I'd probably be more open if you weren't holding a sharp object so close to my neck," Kirito said sarcastically, though he knew he had to be more careful now that he could actually feel pain and bleed.

Because where there's blood in a full-dive game, there's usually the possibility of bleeding out, no matter how good his healing skills were.

His captor stalled for a moment, probably not expecting such a sarcastic tone form his captive, before the sword against his neck was lowered and the grip on his wrist was removed. Immediately after, Kirito turned around and backed up a few steps.

Kirito looked at the weather beaten man. He was an adult, obviously, and had long and unwashed brown hair and stubble on his chin and a rather weather beaten look. He wore mostly worn black clothes and boots that also looked well-worn and he had a small bedroll and pack for food and other provisions on his back, though he did seem to be traveling light. His sword scabbard at his side was currently empty and the blade was in his hand, ready to be raised at a moment's notice and beside him, a torch was planted in the ground, providing some extra light.

There was no warning that this was an NPC, quest giver or player. No player cursor or identification, but Kirito could see an HP bar if he focused on the man, though no accompaning numbers or level could be seen. Strange. All games are supposed to have some form of player ID or cursor though anything 'alive' that wasn't (MOST) plants had a health bar, plus Kirito actually had to focus on him to see it.

"So, who are you?" Kirito asked.

-POV change-

Strider looked at the boy who couldn't be older than 16 before him. He didn't look like he had been traveling for days even though the nearest town was Bree, an eight day journey through the wilderness where no road had existed for quite some time. His hair was cut short like how most male hobbits had their hair, but it was straight rather than curly and naturally messy with some strands hanging in his face and he had the darkest colored onyx – not dark brown – eyes Strider had ever seen on someone of his own race.

His dark eyes also betrayed that he had seen a lot more things he shouldn't that most 16 year olds ever should. Strider hated it when children had eyes like that. It pained him to think that a child had to go through trauma of any sorts. His response to Strider's ambush proved the theory even more.

He wore all black clothing with white trim, and while he did look comfortable in it as if he had been wearing it a while, it didn't look extremely old and torn, but it wasn't brand new either. He had a simple black shirt and black pants tucked into ankle high black boots. Over that, he wore an open long black coat with white trim, with some straps that were also black with white trim and a pair of black fingerless gloves. All of which were made out of materials Strider couldn't ID exactly.

He carried nothing but the sword on his back, rather than his side, which wasn't something seen often. Not even a bedroll or blanket was in sight unless it was somehow tucked away in his coat, but there was nothing to indicate that. If he carried nothing but a sword, how did he get out here, an 8 day journey from Bree? He didn't look like he was hungry or sleep deprived.

At the moment, all Strider could tell about the boy was that he was on high alert. But upon a closer look, he seemed… confused, maybe a little scared. But not of Strider. But he also didn't have the fear levels of the Black Riders or any other predator, lesser or greater, either. So he was either ignorant of them or just foolishly downplaying the creature's abilities.

"So, who are you?" the boy asked.

"I am known as Strider. And you?" he asked, deciding to earn the boys trust at least somewhat before drilling him about the strange magic he had seen the boy preforming before he approached him.

"I'm known as Kirito."

Strider couldn't identify what culture the name sounded like it was from. Obviously he was a foreigner, but from which land?

The broken sword he had made appear and disappear was also an indication of a fight. It was broken- shattered. That meant it had to have been in use. Of course, the sword had disappeared moments after it had appeared so…

But it wasn't the time yet. Strider needed to figure out what do to with the boy-err Kirito, then he needed to get back from Frodo and the other Hobbits as soon as possible. Because knowing them, they were likely to get into trouble even with him just next to the ruins.

These suspicions were proven to be correct a moment later.

Strider had just opened his mouth to say something to Kirito when a blood curling screech filled the air. And annoyingly familiar blood curling screech.

The Wraiths had found them.

"What the hell was that?" Kirito asked, sensing the danger.

Strider didn't answer. Instead he took off running towards the ruins at full speed, not caring that Kirito was not only following him, but easily keeping pace with him despite the break neck faster-than-normal-people-could-go pace Strider was going.

Strider bounded up the steps of the ruins to the top where the Hobbits were.

And he was met by a horrifying sight. Sam, Merry and Pippen had been thrown against the rocks and pillars, and were barely conscious. He couldn't see Frodo, but the wraiths were surrounding an empty area, which meant Frodo had that cursed ring on his finger. One of them had their sword pointed down and there was a cry of pain.

Frodo was hurt. Sam managed to recover and went to his aid.

Strider leapt into battle. He knew he couldn't win against these things, but he had to drive them off, just long enough to make an escape.

Luckily he had a torch with him.

He swung the torch back and forth, the creatures screeched and backed up, but then attacked. He only had three of the five in his vision. One of them stepped forwards and swung at him with its sword.

Then he sensed one right behind him, but his sword was busy blocking another's attack. The once-man raised it's sword to strike Strider down, but instead there was another screech as it's sword connected to another sword that was not Striders.

It was Kirito. For the first time, Aragorn noticed that Kirito had followed him up and had drawn his sword, which much like his clothing, eyes and hair, was black. He had never seen a sword of that metal. And not only that, Kirito was wielding it completely one-handed despite how heavy it seemed to be.

Strider didn't have much time to marvel at Kirito's appearance, there were still enemies to be fought.

Together, they fought off the devils. Strider managed to light one on fire, and Kirito kicked a second into that one, igniting them both and forcing them to retreat.

Kirito fought well. He did lean towards fighting on his own, but at times, he clicked in very easily with Strider for a combo move to combat the monsters in ways Strider never would have thought of. One by one, they were driven away.

The final one finally left after Kirito pushed it into Strider's path for him to ignite it with the torch. With one last screech, they disappeared into the night.

But Strider knew that wouldn't keep them away forever. They had to move quickly.

Both swordsmen put their swords away and rushed to an injured Frodo's side when Sam called for them.

Frodo was moaning and gasping in pain, he had been stabbed in the shoulder.

"Help him Strider," Sam said.

Strider then noticed the sword on the ground next to Frodo and picked it up.

"He has been stabbed by a Mogul Blade," he said, the sword disintegrated down to the hilt a second later, and Strider just knew that the very tip had probably been broken off in Frodo's shoulder.

"This is beyond my skill to heal, he needs elvish medicine," Strider said and lifted Frodo into his arms, trying to ignore his pained cried, "Follow me. All of you."

That last bit was mostly directed at Kirito.


	3. Chapter 2

**And here is the second chapter. Directly uploaded after the first. Still like reviews. Thank you.** **J**

Kirito looked at the injured Hobbit worriedly. Kirito couldn't see any exact numbers on anyone's health bars for some reason, but the Hobbit's HP was in the Red Zone and it wasn't regenerating at all. If anything, it was dropping, but slowly like poison was in his system.

They ran a ways into the forest, away from the Weathertop Ruins, Strider carrying the injured Hobbit. The other three Hobbits looked at Kirito warily, but seemed to trust him enough since he had defended them from those things.

They just had to get far enough to be momentarily safe from the wraiths so they could give the Hobbit some quick medical attention, then Kirito's guess was that they were going to high-tail it to where ever they could get some "elvish medicine," as Strider had said they needed to give Frodo full treatment.

As they ran, Strider encouraged them to hurry.

"But we're 6 days from Rivendell. He'll never make it!" one of the Hobbits exclaimed.

They ran for nearly 45 straight minutes before Strider finally stopped and set Frodo on the ground. They were in the middle of some woods now and surrounded by some rocks that oddly enough looked like worn down statues of some strange large troll-like monsters.

"Mr. Frodo?" Sam asked his friend, who couldn't respond more than a pathetic moan, "He's going cold."

Strider and the Hobbits crowed around the injured one, but Kirito kept his distance.

His HP was still going down. He wouldn't last much longer at this rate.

Kirito bit his lip and swiped his hand down, bringing up his game menu and went into his inventory. He knew that in SAO, there were some things this wouldn't work on, but he had to see if there was anything about Healing Crystal's effects on "Morgul Blade" wounds.

He clicked what he needed and looked at the screen. There were a few new items under the Will Not Heal List, but Mogul Blade Wounds was not one of them.

But under the Stall Poison list it was.

Kirito couldn't heal him, but he could stall the poison to give them more time. He figured that this would also help his status with the others.

He selected one of his 4 remaining Healing Crystals left over from SAO and brought it out.

"Uhh, here, it won't heal him, but it should slow down the effects of the poison," Kirito said, bringing forth the red cube like crystal.

Strider frowned, "How? I have never seen any form of healing come from a crystal such as that."

"Healing crystals worked plenty of times on me, but with this kind of poison, it's only gonna slow it down. He's still going to need actual medical attention," Kirito replied and knelt down next to Frodo.

He placed the crystal close to Frodo's wound and activated it. The red crystal shattered into the familiar hundreds of small polygons. The wound slightly glowed for a moment instantly looked a bit better, and Frodo relaxed a bit, but he was obviously still in a ton of pain and his HP bar was still only raised to be in the orange zone.

The man and the Hobbits all starred at the seemingly magic thing they had just witnessed, but were snapped out of it by another one of Frodo's pained groans and they remembered that it wasn't a permanent solution.

Strider looked closer at the wound again. It looked slightly better, but still not good. Though to do even that much without elf-magic was a very grand thing indeed.

"Is he going to die?" the Hobbit who Kirito would later learn was called Pippin asked.

"He's passing into the shadow world. He'll soon become a Wraith like them if we do not get him to Rivendell."

In the distance, the screech of a Wraith filled the air. It was a long ways off, but still too close for comfort.

"Sam," Strider addressed and stood up, the Hobbit with that name stood as well, "Do you know the Althalas plant?"

"Athalas?" Sam asked.

"Kingsfoil," Strider clarified.

"Kingsfoil, aye, it's a weed."

"It may help to slow the poison even further. You three keep an eye on him."

Sam searched the closer immediate area, not wanting to venture too far away from Frodo while Strider went out a bit further.

"I can't see any of it," Sam muttered angrily to himself, "You, don't you have any more of them crystals?" he asked Kirito.

"I only have 3 more, but it wouldn't do any good to use a second one so soon," Kirito replied.

"Who are you anyways," one of the other two Hobbits asked, Kirito didn't see which one.

"My name is Kirito," he replied, kneeling down next to Frodo to keep an eye on his HP and wound, but also keeping an ear out for any more Wraith screeches, "What about you guys?"

"I'm Pippin, and that's Merry and Sam… and his name is Frodo," the one with the thicker Scottish accent replied, though a pang of sadness ran through his voice as he introduced the injured Frodo, "So, are ye a friend of Strider's?"

"Nope. I literally met him about a minute before you guys got attacked. I was just outside the ruins of Weathertop and ran into him as he was coming back to you guys."

"You're awfully kind to help total strangers," Merry said.

"Did you want me to just leave you guys at the mercy of those things?" Kirito raised an eyebrow, and Merry and Pippin quickly saw his logic and decided he was a good person.

Just then, Strider reaapeared holding a plant that Kirito assumed was the Kingsfoil/Athalas plant… but he wasn't alone. A rather beautiful woman with pale skin, blue eyes and long black hair and ridden into their little area on a white horse. Kirito noticed her pointed ears as she walked passed him.

"Who is she?" Merry asked as she knelt down next to Frodo with Strider.

"She's an Elf," Sam replied in awe. Oh so this was definitely one of those games with all the different types of homosapiens.

"Frodo?" she called out to the Hobbit, but obviously, there was no reply, "He's fading."

Strider chewed a piece of the plant and put it in Frodo's wound, and Frodo's back arched at the pain of the action. Kirito didn't think that was the best way to treat a wound with a plant, but then again, he knew nothing of the Athalas plant or of Strider's skills.

"He's not going to last long, though it seems the poison has been somehow slowed, but we must get him to my father very soon," she said. Strider picked up Frodo after that statement and walked over to her white horse.

"I have been looking for you for two days. You have 5 Wraiths behind you, where the other 4 are, I do not know," she said as Frodo was positioned on the horse. Kirito mentally groaned at the thought of there being more of those things.

"Where are you taking him?" Merry asked, but was ignored.

"Are you sure Frodo should be on a horse in his condition?" Kirito asked, but like Merry, was ignored.

Aragorn began speaking with the elf in a language Kirito did not recognize. Since it wasn't automatically translating into Japanese, he realized it had to be an in game language he would have to learn if he wanted to understand… or it was gibberish like so many game creators used for other in-game languages, but somehow that didn't seem right to describe how they were speaking. The Hobbits apparently couldn't understand either.

Strider and the she-elf conversed for a minute in the language, ignoring anything the Hobbits or Kirito occasionally said.

"I do not fear them," she finally said in the language they could understand.

Kirito noticed that Strider grabbed her hand affectionately, and from the way they looked at each other in that moment made him wonder if they had a similar romantic relationship like what Kirito had with Asuna.

Strider muttered another few words to her and she climbed up onto the horse. Then called to her as she was about to leave:

"Arwen, ride hard. Do not look back," and with that, she whispered to her horse in that forging language and took off.

"Where are you doing? Those Wraiths are still out there!" Sam protested as she took off.

Sam looked like he was about to go run after Frodo or something, but Kirito hesitantly put a hand on his shoulder.

"She can probably get him to Rivendell on horseback a lot faster than he could be carried on foot you know. I don't know how long my healing crystal can keep whatever poisons in him at bay," Sam seemed to reluctantly accept Kirito's words and calmed down a bit.

They didn't hear any more Wraith screaming, which meant they were moving away from their location- probably following the elf, Sam thought with a shudder.

But with that excitement over, the attention was back on Kirito. He had, after all, just appeared out of nowhere.

Strider starred at him hard.

"I will not ask you to come to Rivendell with us, Kirito, for the quest we are on is very dangerous and deals with very dark things a boy should not be a part of, but you may come with us if you so choose. But before you make you decision, I must know what you were doing all the way out here, alone, and about what magic you just preformed."

Kirito paused. This could be his chance to figure out what was going on and where he was. He sighed.

"It's… complicated to explain," Kirito finally replied, "To be completely honest, I have no idea what I was doing out there. I-I remember blacking out after..." Kirito paused as he remembered the last moment before SAO was deleted, "… after an explosion, then I'm not exactly sure what happened...but when I woke up I was out in the middle of nowhere and then you showed up and this happened."

Strider starred at Kirito for a very long time, Kirito could practically feel his eyes drilling a hole in his soul to detect a lie, but didn't find one. Kirito was telling the truth.

"I have a friend who is supposed to be meeting us in Rivendell, he knows a lot about everything that goes on in our world. If what you say is true, he may be able to tell you what has happened," Strider finally said.

"Who is this friend?" Kirito asked cautiously.

"You might know him as Gandalf the Grey, one of the 5 wizards of Middle Earth."

The only reply Strider got to Gandalf's name was a confused look.

"Do you not know who he is?" Merry asked, "Everybody knows him though."

"Sorry, but I've never heard that name before… or ever heard of Earth referred to as Middle Earth," Kirito revealed. In fact, he didn't know any games that had those names or references and he knew a LOT of games with medieval-like settings with multiple races of people.

Again with the soul searching lie detection stare from Strider.

"Then you should come with us. If you do not even know the name of Middle Earth, you either have severe memory loss or you are truly not from here. Gandalf may be able to help you."

"I hope so," Kirito mumbled.

They walked/jogged/ran for another hour until it was late then found a place to set up camp.

…

Due to their-mostly Sam's- constant worrying about Frodo, they actually arrived in Rivendell a day early. But over their journey, the Hobbits explained their situation to Kirito.

Apparently, Frodo's uncle Bilbo had found a ring in a cave on an adventure 60 years ago, but kept it hidden, but when he departed the Shire unexpectedly a few years ago, all his possessions, including the ring was left to Frodo. And apparently the Ring was a dangerous and powerful thing forged by this evil guy, Sauron, to control all the other rings of power as well as the other beings in Middle Earth and makes you invisible when you put it on… for some reason. Anyway, Sauron apparently died a few thousand years ago, but he wasn't really dead cause of his life force being connected to the ring, and now he's like, partially back but he needs his dangerous ring of power to fully come back and will likely destroy everything if he does. So he sent his mindless once human Wraith slaves after Frodo to bring him the ring, but Gandalf knew this, and sent him, and Sam who claimed to be "dropping no eaves," off to Rivendell to the elves to put the ring in a safe places, accidently picking up Pippin and Merry along the way and Gandalf was supposed to meet them in an inn in the town Bree, but never showed, but the Wraiths did and they ran into Strider, a friend of Gandalf's, who helped them get out of Bree alive, and then they went to Weathertop to spend the night but the Wraiths caught up and Kirito knew the rest from there.

In return, Kirito showed them his game menu. This game obviously didn't program anyone to know anything about technology or in-game mechanics though, which was strange because if that was the case they shouldn't have been able to even acknowledge the game menu's presence.

And because he really didn't want to get into explaining every single detail about technology, SAO and getting sent her and his whole login situation just yet, he managed to pass it off as a kind of magic from where he was from but denied being a wizard.

Technology like this was pretty easy to pass off as magic, especially in a world that didn't even have lightbulbs.

"So does it have unlimited amount of space?" Pippin asked as they walked, "You can put anything you want in there and recall it anywhere?"

"It does have a space limit and I can't store living, really big or really heavy items unless they've been specifically designed for inventory transport, which is complicated to do even with the right materials, and are there are a few other things that just aren't combatable with the system," Kirito replied with a shrug.

The Hobbits were very kind and easy to get along with and talk to, even if Sam was a bit harder due to being constantly worried about Mr. Frodo.

Strider kept a very close eye on Kirito the first few days, but eventually relaxed a little, but kept just a close an eye on him as he did the Hobbits.

Four and a half days later, thanks to their rushed pace, they arrived in Rivendell. In a word, Kirito thought Rivendell was beautiful.

SAO had some beautiful scenery, but nothing in the game was anywhere near on Rivendell's level. And inside the city, Kirito got his first real encounter with elves, who greeted them at the front gate. They all had at least shoulder length long, straight silky hair and pretty much everything about them was graceful.

Some of the female elves reminded him of Asuna to a certain extent, of course, Asuna was a more combat-on-the-frontlines type and a bit more bold speaking, but the resemblance was there. They were first greeted formally by a dark haired elf named Lord Elrond, who was apparently the leader around these parts. He assured them that Frodo had arrived in time and was able to be saved. Currently, he was asleep and would likely remain so for a few more days. Sam instantly requested to be taken to his side and was escorted to Frodo's room.

"And may I ask your name?" Elrond said after he finished exchanging pleasantries with Strider and after Sam left.

"I'm Kirito," he replied.

"He came to my aid when we were attacked on Weathertop," Strider added, "Though, we were both too late to prevent Frodo's injury."

Elrond studied the boy for a while.

"Where are you from, Kirito?" Elrond asked.

"I doubt you've heard of it," Kirito replied.

"I have heard of many places," Elrond said calmly, maybe even with a hint of amusement.

Normally, Kirito would never say what he was about to in a game, but seeing as he had found no proof of other players, might be in a solo game and needed to know where he was in perspective to home, he did it anyway, "Japan. More specifically Kawagoe City."

Elrond frowned. Of course he had never heard of those places.

"Didn't think so," Kirito sighed upon seeing Elrond's expression, "The fact you guys call this place Middle Earth was kind of a clue that I just got further away from home."

"I believe that may have been my fault," a new voice said from the door way, the three turned to see an old man dressed in grey robed with a long white/grey beard and hair and carrying a staff.

"Gandalf, Mithrandir. Welcome to Rivendell," Elrond greeted with a nod of his head.  
"It's good to see you again as well, Elrond, Strider, and it's a great thing to meet you as well, Kirito," the old man replied kindly.

"How is it your fault I'm here?" Kirito asked warily, his mind immediately going to the last person who dragged him and trapped him in another world, Kayaba Akihiko.

"Come, we have must to discuss," Gandalf said, and they went into a more private room.

Gandalf then reported to Elrond and Strider than this other wizard named Saruman had betrayed them and was working with the enemy- Sauron, for the madness and lure of the power from the ring had overtaken his mind. He had imprisoned Gandalf in Isenguard when he refused to join him and that was why he was unable to meet the Hobbits in Bree.

While he was imprisoned on the top of the towers, he sent out a moth messenger to send help, and a day or so later, one of the Great Eagles came to his aid and allowed him to escape, but Gandalf's cry for help had apparently gone out further than he thought, for he gained intel that they- whoever 'they' were- were sending a warrior from another world to help deal with the situation of the ring.

"So, basically, I managed to get myself sent to _another_ world so I can help you guys deal with this this Sauron guy, and his really powerful ring?" Kirito summed up.

"It seems so," Gandalf replied with a slight twinkle in his eye, "Though, I must admit, I was not expecting someone so young. You are just barely 16 years of age. I would have expected a grown man."

"Yeah, I kinda grew up a long time ago," Kirito mumbled, "But if I'm in another world, that doesn't explain why I can still use my SAO abilities."

"SAO?" Strider asked.

"I believe that perhaps if you tell us where you came from, we could help figure out how to send you home once the situation here is dealt with," Elrond said.

Kirito decided not to comment on the fact that his getting home was being put as a second priority.

"It's probably going to sound crazy to you guys considering that you don't even have harnessed electricity here," Kirito warned.

"I am aware that different worlds have different rules and advancements," Gandalf said.

Kirito didn't know why he did it, but he told them. He had never been an open person, not with his social skills, but these people were possibly his only way home. His only way to Asuna.

"Well, let's see, I guess a good place to start is back in Japan…. In my world, Earth, we've got some pretty advanced technology now…"

With some difficulty Kirito managed to explain a basic concept of electricity and computers. ( **AN: You can imagine your own scenario on how he does this because I honestly don't know how I would explain it.)**

Once they knew what computers were, Kirito went on to explain that people eventually starting making computer games for pass time and entertainment, and as technology got better, people had more time on their hands, so gaming also grew until it got to the point where entire virtual worlds could be created.

He explain the concept of a full-drive program, where the player would put on Nerve gear that would essentially send the mind a player into a virtual setting where they could move around like they could in real life, with some enhancements, and beyond while the nerve gear simulated the senses they got in-game like it was real life to an extent, but the nerve gear also prevented them from moving their real body, making it seem like they were asleep while inside the program.

At first, they were used for military training. Programmers would create very difficult scenarios or simulate small battles to train soldiers for the real thing where they could attack for real, but wouldn't actually be killing or seriously injuring anyone, but eventually, someone decided to use the tech to create worlds for games. Like all tech advancements, it started small, but eventually got bigger and better.

They turned out to be extremely popular among the gamming community. And two years ago, Sword Art Online was created by Kayaba Akihito, who actually originally created the full-dive tech, becoming the first Full-Dive Game on such a large scale. Kirito explained that he was in the Beta Test- and what a Beta test was- and that during that time, the game worked fine and it was something a lot of people would enjoy playing.

When the game was released to the public, all 10,000 first-wave copies were sold out within the first day on the market. And when the game finally launched all 10,000 players were inside, though the game was quite different from the beta test. Then Kirito revealed that they couldn't Log Out of the game, and explained that first day when Kayaba appeared before them and made his whole speech about how he wanted to control a world and had trapped them all in the game on purpose and how they would die in real life if they died in the game or if someone in reality tried to remove their nerve gear via Microwaved Brian, and how the only way back to reality was to beat all the Boss Monsters on all 100 Floors and clear the game.

Then he explained how 2000 people died in the first month before they finally cleared the first floor. He never went into exact details of his role in the game other than he fought on the front lines and it took them just over 2 years just to get to floor 75 plus a few details about that not everyone was on the front lines and that there were other developable skills in the game. The only event he went into some specifics was his final Fight with Kayaba after the 14 player loss Boss fight on Floor 75.

He said that the fight turned against his favor (leaving out the bit about Asuna sacrificing herself) and then Kayaba stabbed him then stopped to gloat, but Kirito wasn't all the way dead (well he was, but wasn't. Complications) and stabbed him with Asuna's sword before he realized what was going on. Kirito's HP depleted to zero again soon after and he thought he was dead, but then wasn't.

He briefly explain how he and Asuna woke up on a platform above the SAO world, and that Kayaba was there too. That he congratulated them on completing the game, said that all of the remaining 6,000 players had been Logged out, and said that since they completed the game, it was self-destructing and erasing itself. Then he just disappeared, Kirito still didn't know what happened to him. Asuna and Kirito didn't know what was going to happen to them either, so they just kinda sat together until the world finished deleting.

"When the world did finally finish deleting, there was kind of an explosion of white light and I blacked out, again. When I woke up after that, I was right outside the Weathertop ruins. But I was kind confused, I wasn't dead, but I hadn't woken up in my world and I still had most of my SAO abilities like my game menu and inventory, most of my skills, and I could still see my HP bar, but all the numbers glitched out. I tried going to the Log out button, but it said Log In. And when I pressed that, this happened," Kirito finished.

He pulled up his game menu and went to his options. The looked and sure enough, the button said Login. Kirito pressed it and the screen that said he had to fix 2 errors first popped up.

With a sigh, Kirito closed his game menu and thought for a moment. The adults in the room were quiet for a moment, absorbing the new information.

"It seems that my summons reached you just as that world finished eradicating itself, and pulled you here as you were about to either to die or wake up," Gandalf finally said.

"Maybe then if I fix whatever errors this thing is going on about, I'll be able to get back home, I guess," Kirito shrugged.

"Perhaps it has something to do with the ring. Gandalf did call for help on it's behalf," Strider put in.

"I have already sent out invitations for a meeting for all the races concerning the ring. We will work out it's fate there and then as it affects all the races of Middle Earth. They will arrive within a few weeks."

Kirito sighed, "It's a start. Besides, I can't exactly just bail on you guys while someone's trying to tear you world apart… but you might want to start with better security in your home base. I can see you guys over there you know."

Pippin and Merry ducked their heads in from either side of the door frame, looking a bit shocked that they had been discovered. Apparently they had heard the entire thing.

Elrond sighed, wondering why he got the feeling those two Hobbits were going to be trouble.


	4. Chapter 3

**Here is your third chapter. Thank you for reading.**

 **At this point i realize i have forgotten to do a disclaimer, so here you go: I do not own anything. Sword Art Online and Lord of the Rings belong to their respective owners who are not me.**

Kirito was given a rather comfortable room to sleep in while he was in Rivendell. He honestly didn't know when the last time was that he had slept in such a comfortable bed. SAO's beds were on a scale from the ground to decent, quality- plush beds were an expensive rarity. But Rivendell beds were deluxe.

Of course, he had nightmares from his time in SAO, which kinda dulled down the comfort, but Kirito refused to admit that he had any form of PTSD until he was in his own true home and the danger was over.

Then there was the food. The food, while elves seemed to be mostly vegetarians, though there was some meat, had much more flavor than he had tasted in a while. Asuna was an amazing max skilled cook, it was still programmed food they had been eating, plus they weren't actually eating anything, just the nerve gear simulating their brain whenever they put a food item in their mouth.

The scenery wasn't bad either. Better than what SAO had programmed, and it felt good to see real stars again instead of the not-all-the-way realistic painted-like huge-celling skies of the Floors in SAO for the past 2 years.

To pass time, he wandered around Rivendell and read through a few books in the library to further acquaint himself with the world he was in. He did some background research on the Ring and the great war and what happened there and got a little background info on all the races of Middle Earth; Men, Hobbits, Elves and Dwarves, as well as the "monster-like" races like Orcs, Goblins, Dragons and some others.

For most people, it would seem like a lot to take in so quickly, but 1, Kirito always got the info he needed and 2, he's a computer geek and considered a forming computer genius, which required pretty good reading and comprehension skills. In his world, he spent ages online reading info pages and browsing through multiple Wikipedia and other site info pages on multiple subjects. If it was something he wanted to read, he could read it as fast as he needed.

The elves were nice enough as well, and obviously, so were the Hobbits, but Kirito still spent most of his time alone. Despite what happened in SAO with Asuna, and his friends, Klein, Agil, Lisbeth and the few others, he was still more of a loner. He didn't have high level social interaction skills. In game or in real life or in whatever Middle Earth was.

Five days later, Frodo finally woke up, on the path healing quickly, though Kirito heard a rumor the wound would never fully heal.

Kirito had been passing by Frodo's door when he noticed it was open and there were voices inside it.

"… Bless you, you're awake!" Came Sam's voice. Apparently Frodo had woken up in the brief time he left to do something Kirito didn't know.

"Sam has hardly left your side since his arrival," Gandalf said.

"We were that worried about you weren't we Mr. Gandalf," Sam said, and by this point, Kirito was leaning against the door frame.

"By the skills of Lord Elrond, you're beginning to mend," Gandalf said, and for the first time, Kirito noticed Elrond in the room as well.

"Welcome to Rivendell, Frodo Baggins. Though I must say I cannot take all the credit for your healing. If not for Kirito delaying the poison, you never would have made it here," the dark haired elf replied, and looked over to where Kirito was standing, bringing the attention of the room to him.

"Thank you, both of you," Frodo said, to with Kirito and Elrond replied with a slight bow of the head.

Frodo looked at Kirito for a moment, he seemed familiar somehow.

Then he remembered that just after the Weathertop incident he was in and out of coherence and he vaguely remembered seeing a boy with dark hair standing over him holding some red gem that shattered. It was shortly before he saw the beautiful dark haired woman speaking who had spoken in the strange yet beautiful language that was elvish.

Kirito slipped out of the room and let Sam, Frodo and Gandalf catch up. A few hours later, Frodo was able to get up, get dressed and walk around Rivendell, so Kirito left him to it and went to read a book he'd gotten from the library in a tree near the courtyard near the front gate. He read there often.

A few days passed, most of which was spend either eating, sleeping wandering around Rivendell or reading. Frodo was mending quite nicely and apparently was catching up with his Uncle Bilbo, who was also in Rivendell.

It was maybe around noon on the end of his second week in Rivendell when a man rode into Rivendell on a brown horse. He had brownish reddish hair about the length of Strider's and some stubble that might grow into a beard someday, though more so than Strider. He had an air of confidence and had a round shield on his back and sword at his side, and looked confident despite looking a bit travel weary.

He must be the first arrival of those invitations Elrond had sent out.

The man didn't seem to notice Kirito in the tree and continued into Rivendell, being greeted by a few elves as he did. Another few hours and a few more men arrived, though like the first man, none seemed to notice him in the tree. Several hours later a group of elves, the first one in had long blonde hair and dismounted off his house quickly once he was inside the gate, scanning Rivendell.

A few of the elves, including the blonde one looked his way, but were greeted by some more Rivendell elves before any words could be traded.

Two days later, what could only be a group of dwarves arrived. They were a bit taller than Hobbits, but still much shorter than men or elves, though obviously more broadly build shoulder, body shape and muscle wise, and mostly carried axes as primary weapons and had large bushy beards.

Like the men, they did not seem to take note of Kirito. As they passed in and were greeted by elves, Kirito couldn't help but notice a bit of hostility. Of course, Kirito had read about the rivalry between dwarves and elves spanning back centuries. He just hopped that wouldn't get in the way of whatever was to become of the ring since it was going to supposedly affect all of them.

A few days passed and the travelers got settled in, though Kirito hadn't interacted with any of them.

Kirito continued to read all the while, of course every now and then he'd take a break to eat and stuff.

It was evening as he walked to the library to put a book back after completing it. He was unfortunately running out of books that were written in a language he could read, and hoped there to be at least a few more left that he could read without having to learn elvish.

When he entered, he found Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin in the library as well as an elderly Hobbit holding a red leather bound book who could only be Bilbo Baggins, Frodo's uncle. Kirito had seen him around a few times, but they had never actually spoken.

"Kirito!" Pippin exclaimed happily when he noticed the 16 year old had entered the library.

"Hi guys," Kirito replied casually as he placed the book he had finished on the shelf.

"Ah, so you're Kazuto Kirigaya. Pippin and Merry have told me all about your backstory," Bilbo said. Kirito froze.

He vaguely remembered mentioning his real name to Strider and the others during his explanation, and they had accepted that he was going to keep going by Kirito, but he had totally forgotten that Merry and Pippin had been listening. It's not like he didn't like using his real name, it's just that after 2 years, hearing someone use it was a little surprising.

Then he sighed.

"So, how much have they exaggerated it?" he replied lightly.

"Not that much," Merry and Pippin protested.

"Is it true though?" Sam cut in, "Have you really spent the last two years out of reality?"

"Yeah," Kirito nodded, thinking he had hid the wave of unpleasant memories that washed over him when the subject was brought up.

"Must be quite the story then," Bilbo said, "I've got one of my own, I've gotten almost all of it all written down here," he added tapping the leather bound book.

"I know the basics, but I don't think I've gotten the full account yet," Kirito said.

"Bilbo was just about to tell us the story," Merry said.

"You're welcome to stay and listen, Kirito," Bilbo said kindly.

Kirito thought for a moment. I'd been a while since he just sat down to listen to a story, so he did, taking a seat on the couch, a little bit further away that most people would, but still in range to listen attentively.

Kirito found that despite the differentness of the story from what he was used to, he found it rather enjoyable as Bilbo recounted his adventure of how he went from comfortably at home hobbit to going on a quest with the company of 13 dwarves to reclaim a homeland, meeting the elves in Rivendell for the first time, the Goblins, the game of wits with Gollum, Azog, the eagle escape, the Mirkwood elves and the crazy barrel ride escape, the Lake Town, reclaiming Erebor, the dragon Smaug and it's attack on Lake Town, the Arkenstone, and his defeat and the battle of the five armies where Kili, Fili and Thorin ultimately died and Bilbo's return to the shire.

It was really a rather interesting story.

But the hour was late when it was over, and both Kirito and Frodo had been summoned to the meeting of a secret council tomorrow morning and had to get to bed.

Kirito was the last to leave the Library, except for Bilbo.

"Kirito," the old hobbit called, getting his attention, while the other Hobbits were already out of reach.

"Yes, Bilbo?" he replied.

"It truly does help your mind to write it all down," the elderly Hobbit said, as if he somehow knew that Kirito had nightmares about his time in SAO. Kirito probably had the look on his face that Bilbo had looked he often used to have right after his repercussions of his own adventure.

"I'll consider it. Thank you for sharing your story," Kirito said with a warm smile, and traditional slight bow, then headed off to bed.

But before he went to sleep he went out onto his balcony and noticed two figures on the bridge over a small stream that was in his view. It was Strider and the Elf woman who had brought Frodo ahead to Rivendell, Arwen if he remembered correctly.

He was too far away to tell what they were saying, but they were obviously having a moment. She stroked his hair and he touched a necklace on her chest. From the way they looked at each other, Kirito recognized what it was instantly. They were a very cute couple. Kirito returned to his room to let them have their alone time once their kiss began.

Strider and Arwen, their love reminded Kirito of himself and Asuna. A happy couple who had probably seen a lot of stuff together. Except of course, Arwen and Strider were in the same world at the moment and probably didn't meet to go kill a monster together.

That night, Kirito dreamed about Floor 75. He remembered each and every one of the 14 good fighters they lost that day to the Skull Reaper. But that memory quickly lead to his fight with Kayaba, and the big reveal, and when he paralyzed everyone in the room.

Except when Asuna jumped in the way of the Sociopath's sword and was dying in his arms, she blamed him for everything.

That was what had woken Kirito up in a cold sweat. He knew she didn't blame him… but he did blame himself. She nearly (did) died because he was reckless in thinking he could be the big hero.

Was she here somewhere in this world as well? Probably not, she hadn't been with him when he woke up, and they had been hugging and sitting next to each other when the end of SAO came.

Kirito didn't want to believe it, but somehow he just knew Asuna wasn't here with him in Middle Earth. But he didn't believe she was dead either.

She had to have woken up. It was the only option left. He would see her again just as soon as he worked out the errors keeping him in Middle Earth.

Seeing as there was no getting back to sleep and sunrise was maybe only a half hour off, Kirito decided to get cleaned up and ready for the meeting that would take place at 10:00.

The hours seemed to pass slowly, and breakfast was kind on an awkward silence, but finally the time came and representatives from each race – plus Kirito who was from another world- gathered in a court yard in chairs set up around a pedestal.

There were 25 people in all including Kirito.

There was Lord Elrond, his two sons and three other Rivendell Elves, 4 dwarves, 5 elves from places that were not Rivendell, Aragorn, Kirito, Gandalf, Frodo, the reddish-brown haired man who was apparently Boromir, son of the Steward of Gondor- which was kind of like what was once the capital city before the kingdom dissolved and five other men who had arrived soon after Boromir.

Kirito sat between Aragorn and one of the other men.

Several of the people gave Kirito odd looks, whether it be from his attire, unrecognizable nationality or his obviously young age. Most of them had seen him around Rivendell prior to the meeting, but didn't realize he'd be a part of it.

Once everyone was seated, Elrond stood up and began the meeting.

"Strangers from distant lands, friends of old. You've been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor. Middle Earth stands upon the brink of destruction, none can escape it. You will unite or you will fall. Each race is bound to this fate, this one indestructible doom," Elrond turned to the only Hobbit present, "Bring forth the ring, Frodo."

Frodo almost hesitantly slid out of his seat and reached into his pocket before slowly approaching the pedestal. He placed the ring in the center and backed off to his own seat again.

As soon as the ring was in full view of everyone, several gasps went out throughout the crowd. Kirito heard Boromir mutter, "So it is true!" with suspicious eagerness. Strider eyed Boromir almost warily.

Several more hushed whispers went over the crowd. Kirito was slightly confused. Everyone seemed to lean in towards the ring, but the vibe Kirito was getting from it was to get as far away from it as possible. This wasn't the first time either. It's why he always spent less time with Frodo than he did others. The ring seemed to hate him or something.

Several people gathered noticed the boys opposite reaction to their own.

"It is a gift," Boromir said, casting all attention on him, so he stood up to say what he had to, "A gift to the foes of Mordor. Why not use this ring? My father, Steward of Gondor, has kept the forces of Mordor at bay. By the blood out _our_ people are your lands kept safe. Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy. Let us use it against him!"

The longer Boromir spoke, Kirito noticed Strider's obvious anger and frustration towards the auburn haired man's words. When the man had finished his piece, Strider spoke up, "You cannot wield it. None of us can. The One ring answers to Sauron alone. It has no other master."

Boromir looked a little insulted that Strider was speaking against him.

"And what would a Ranger know of this matter."

Then the blonde elf from a few days ago suddenly stood, "This is no mere Ranger. He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. You owe him your allegiance," the elf said defensively.

 _"_ _Aragorn? I thought his name was Strider- well, I'm not really one to talk about real names. Kirito is just a combination of my real name._ ** _Kiri_** _gaya Kazu_ _ **to**_. _Probably easier to travel around when people don't really know who you are, especially if he's someone important."_ Kirito thought.

"Aragorn?" Boromir questioned, "This is Isildur's heir?" Boromir either looked pleased or worried to meet him. Aragorn didn't seem to be too thrilled about his real ID being exposed. Frodo looked at him the same way Kirito did, with surprise of a revealed name. The others in the group looked at him in surprise and in awe as well.

"And heir to the throne of Gondor," the blonde elf added.

Strider- err rather Aragorn, called the elf Legolas and said something in the elvish language, and the elf sat down again, grudgingly.

Boromir scowled, "Gondor has no king. Gondor needs no king." Then he sat down angrily.

"Aragorn is right, we cannot use it," Gandalf confirmed.

"You have but one choice then. The Ring must be destroyed," Elrond revealed and a hush fell over the crowd.

Then a red haired dwarf spoke up, "Well then, what are we waiting for."

He got up and raised his ax. Kirito then remembered everything he read about the _nearly industrucble ring_ and then remembered how proud dwarves were with their weapons. If he tried to destroy the ring with that, his ax would shatter and that would likely cause some upheave from the dwarves. They didn't need that now.

Just as several cries of protest to Gimli's actions went around the circle, his ax came down on the ring- or rather didn't. Instead there was the clang of metal against metal, but it was not ax metal against ring metal.

No one hardly saw the boy move, or even reach for his sword.

But when they blinked, the boy was out of his seat, coat wooshing, a black sword unlike anyone had ever seen before had been drawn out of the sheath on his back, and he was holding it firmly, no shaking, about a single centimeter above the ring, solidly preventing the dwarf's ax from hitting it- and inadvertly preventing Frodo a headache.

Some looked shocked, others worried, a few dwarves angered that two weapons had clashed at the meeting. Others just looked plain curious.

Everyone was in shock for a moment, until Kirito finally spoke to snap them out of it.

"You can't destroy the Ring that way. Remember all those weapons that shattered during that war when it was on Sauron's finger when people tried hitting it directly," Kirito said, recalling facts from that book he read about the war so he wouldn't be completely out of the loop. The fact he had put Sauron's name in the statement made it carry even more of an impact.

Gimli backed off, nodding as if suddenly realizing his foolishness. He was wielding his father's ax, he didn't want to disgrace him by shattering it so soon after getting it because of a foolish action. Gimli was silently thanking the odd child.

A few of the men and elves who also knew of the Dwarves pride in their weapons had also realized another headache Kirito had just prevented as well.

Kirito backed off, returning to his seat as well and put his sword away on his back sheath. He ignored the eyes staring at him intently now. They hadn't expected that from a boy.

"Yes, Kirito is correct," Elrond said, taking control of the group again, "The Ring cannot be destroyed, Gimli, son of Glion, by any craft we here possess. The Ring was made in the fires of Mount Doom. And only there can it be unmade…. It must be taken deep into Mordor and cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came…. One of you must do this."

A silence fell over the group once more.

And them Boromir opened his mouth again.

"One does not simply walk into Mordor," he said, paused then continued while shaking his head, "Its black gates are guarded by more than just orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep. And the great eye is ever watchful. Tis a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust. The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with 10,000 men could you do this. It is folly."

Legolas stood again, with great urgency, "Have you heard nothing Lord Elrond has just said?! The ring must be destroyed."

"And I suppose you think you're the one to do it," Gimli protested at the thought of an elf taking such an important quest.

"And if we fail, what then? What happens when Sauron takes back what is his?" Boromir shouted, and all three were on their feet.

"I will be dead before I see the ring in the hands of an elf," Gimli shouted.

And suddenly, everyone was on their feet yelling and arguing. Only Frodo, Elrond, Aragorn and Kirito remained seated.

Kirito looked around the fighting mob and found that Frodo was clutching his head as if it hurt. Then Frodo starred at the ring, not with greed or longing, but with fear and a hint of resignation to fate. And the small words, "I will take it," escaped his mouth. Apparently, Kirito was the only one who heard.

Frodo stood and said, "I will take it," again, but was not heard over the crowd and the fighting continued.

Kirito sighed, looked like it was time to intervene again.

Kirito stood and grabbed two of the decorative small polished rocks from the nearby rock bed. He stood next to Frodo and whispered, "Cover your ears. This is going to be loud."

Frodo looked at him with confusion but did as he was told.

Kirito let a familiar energy build up, and the rock in his left hand took on a greenish glow while the one in his right took on a blue glow. He held his hands in front of him. No one had noticed him yet… except for Elrond who was looking at him curiously like, _"Why did you take rocks from my rock bed and why are they glowing?"_

Kirito let the energy release as he threw the rocks together.

There was a really loud crack as they collided and shattered into smaller pebbles. The sound reverberated all through Rivendell. No debris hit anyone, but it scared the hell out of everyone who heard the sound, especially the people in attendance of the meeting, several of which reached for their weapons.

The all turned and starred at him wide eyed.

"If you're all done arguing, I think it's time you remembered there's a better option than any of you are presenting," Kirito said exasperatedly.

A few people seemed insulted that Kirito, a 16 year old boy, was seeming to talk down on them, but they never got the chance to speak because Frodo beat them to it.

"I will take the ring to Mordor," Frodo announced.

No one argues upfront, but Gandalf sighed, as if he knew this would happen, but didn't want it to.

"… Though, I do not know the way," Frodo added after a few seconds. There was a silence after his spoke his words. Kirito begun to wonder if anyone was going to react at all.

Finally, Gandalf breathed a sigh and stepped forwards, "I will help you bear this burden, Frodo Baggins, for as long as it is yours to bear." That started the chain reaction.

Aragorn stood, "By my life or death, if I can protect you, I will," he went and kneeled before Frodo, "You have my sword."

Legolas suddenly stepped forwards, "And you have my bow."

"And my ax," Gimli added and also came to stand with the group, no one noticed the small smile Elrond and Gandalf shared, knowing what was happening.

"And my abilities," Kirito said, joining the group, now knowing that the destruction of the ring was almost certain to be one of the errors that had to be fixed and he needed to be a part in that. Of course, he had never been one to travel in parties for long periods of time, but he had to make an exception for this.

Boromir also stepped forward, "You care the fate of us all, little one. If this is indeed the will of the Council, then Gondor will see it done."

"HEY!" someone hiding in the buses called, Elrond looked weirded out as a certain Hobbit named Sam came out of his hiding places in the bushes and ran to Frodo's side, "Mr. Frodo's not going anywhere without me."

Kirito couldn't help but smirk as Elrond replied, "No, indeed it is hardly possible to separate you even when he is summoned to a Secret Council and you are _not."_

"Oi!" two more familiar voices called out, "We're coming too," Marry and Pippin popped out from behind the pillars in the door way and also ran to the growing group.

Elrond obviously wasn't pleased that so many Hobbits had been eavesdropping on the supposed to be secret council, but serval others, including Kirito found it rather amusing.

"You'd have to send us home tied up in a sack to stop us," Pippin said as they took their place next to Frodo, "Anyway, you need people of intelligence on this… quest thing."

"Well that rules you out, Pip," Merry deadpanned.

After getting over the initial reaction to the random horde of Hobbits appearing, Elrond was about to reject to them coming, but then he saw a smile on Frodo's face and realized the ring bearer would need more than physical protection, but close friends to keep him sane during the journey and postpone the effects of the Ring's mental ensnarement, and the Hobbits would fill that role. Plus they now outnumbered the 9 wraiths.

"10 companions… so be it. You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring," Elrond announced.

"Great," Pippin said, "So where are we going?"

Everyone rolled their eyes, but everyone at the council seemed to approve of the fellowship. It had representatives of each race with the most neutral and most resistant to the ring's dark influence carrying it.

The council disbanded after that to prepare the Fellowship for their journey, which they would depart for in 3 weeks' time.

Kirito went to the library to study some maps so he could memorize the basic route they were to be taking. Gandalf or any of the others would probably be a better guide than him, but at least he wouldn't be blindly flowing. Maybe he'd even be able to copy a few maps into the Game Menu. He still had some maps he created and downloaded in SAO, so theoretically he should still be able to do it here since he had most of his game abilities here.

"You name is Legolas right," he said, sensing the elf following him as he turned into the library.

"And yours is Kirito," the blonde elf replied, turning in after him, "What did you do back there, during the argument, the rocks they glowed then-"

"I transferred some of my energy into the rocks, and when I threw them at each other, the extra energy made then travel faster than normal and had a stronger impact when they collided. It's not the most energy effect way of getting attention but it worked," Kirito replied as he scanned the shelves for the maps he was looking for. Once he found a few he pulled them out and walked over to the desk and spread them out.

"Where did you learn such magic?" Legolas asked.

"The Ring's influence has stretched far beyond the borders of our own world," Gandalf replied for Kirito, appearing in the library along with the rest of the newly formed Fellowship, making the eyes of those present who did not know Kirito's situation widen.

"You are not-" Boromir began.

"From Middle Earth? Nope," Kirito replied casually as he looked over the map, Gandalf came to his side and began tracing with his finger, mapping out the possible routes they could take to Mordor.

"As for the magic bit, it's not really magic. It more of a technological skill I picked up due to certain circumstances," Kirito mumbled.

"Yes, those circumstances being trapped in separate world from reality," Aragorn said.

"What?" it seemed Kirito was only succeeding in making Legolas and the others more confused.

"It wasn't like I was planning on getting stuck there," Kirito replied as he continued to try and memorize the map and was planning on downloading later.

"Mr. Kirito, maybe you should explain what you're doing here to them, they look awfully confused," Sam said and for the first time, Kirito actually saw how confused they were when he turned to face them.

"Oh, right. It's a long story," Kirito said absently, "I'll give you the short version later."

They studied the maps and then went to get lunch. After lunch, Kirito managed to slip away before the others could corner him about his backstory. He really didn't feel like re-explaining it just yet. Maybe he would open up sometime during the quest which was apparently going to involve a lot of walking and therefore lots of time for talking.

They studied maps straight into dinnertime, which was rather good. And before anyone managed to corner Kirito about his story, he managed to slip away once more.

One evening he was talking a walk around Rivendell (again) and camp upon a room with a statue holding a platter. On the platter was a sword with several shards of a sword. Very damaged, but still in better condition than his other sword, Dark Repulsor, which was in even smaller and more numerous pieces.

But at least he had all of the pieces of his blade. This one looked to be missing a few.

He finally recalled what the blade was from his reading.

"Yes, this is the sword that cut the ring from Sauron's finger," a voice said behind him. Kirito turned to see Lord Elrond.

"It's a beautiful blade," Kirito truthfully commented.

"Even more so when it was whole. Someday it may be reforged, but that is not today," the elf replied.

"It looks like a few of the pieces are missing," Kirito said.

"We scanned the battlefield several hours and days, but the other shards were lost to places we do not know. Many take it as a sign that the king is never meant to return."

"There's always a Republic," Kirito suggested.

"The men of this world are far too divided for that kind of Government. It was tried, but the closest we got was the Steward of Gondor, who has no qualities of that government. But even he can only hold his power in the city of Gondor itself. Not throughout all of Middle Earth as a true leader could."

"Boromir's father?"

"Yes."

"Why don't you just forge a new sword?"

"This one was made with special metals that are to find and hard to merge other metals with for a properly strong sword. The time for the Return of the King has not come."

"I'm sure you'll figure something out when the time does come."

"You are wise Kirito.

"That's a first for me. Normally, I'm actually a pretty rude person. My social skills aren't exactly highly developed."

"There are several kinds of wise people."

It was a strange exchange but one that happened none-the-less. After a while more, Elrond departed. It was late and Kirito did as well. As he did so, he thought to himself. He smiled, getting an idea. It probably wouldn't do that much good soon, but they would probably find a use for it eventually.


	5. Chapter 4

The three weeks of preparation passed quickly in Kirito's opinion, but it had probably seemed even faster for Frodo, who seemed to be slightly dreading this expidition. They packed their food and water and other travel necessities, but tried to keep it as light as possible since speed and stealth was pretty high on the priority list.

For Kirito that was pretty easy since he could just store everything in his Inventory except his sword, which remained on his back, and a few smaller hunting knives and a few other small things he hid within his coat pockets upon Aragorn's request for safety measures since it did take a few seconds to retrieve anything from the inventory and he couldn't really walk or run with it open.

Kirito offered to put the other's stuff in his game inventory as well, but they declined in favor of keeping their own possessions on their body, both for personal and safety reason like if they managed to get separated during the quest. (*coughforeshadowingcough*)

Over the three weeks, the others who did not know Kirito's story began getting small bits and pieces, but obviously realized that Kirito didn't want to talk a ton about it. They heard something about being trapped in a world that wasn't reality with 10,000 people and having to fight a bunch of monsters to get out and it took over 2 years, but that's all Gimli, Legolas and Boromir really got concretely. Sam and Frodo had more idea what was going on, but didn't know exactly how much Pippin and Merry had left out, added, changed, forgotten or exaggerated in their recounting of what Kirito had told.

Plus they also had a pony named Bill that would be going with them for carrying extra stuff. He had actually come with them from Bree, but he was going to be continuing to be in their service.

Then came the day of departure. Everyone gathered in the front courtyard to see them off, the same place Kirito had been reading when the other council men had arrived.

"The ringbearer is setting out on a quest to Mount Doom," Elrond started the goodbye, "And you who travel with him own him no oath nor bond is laid to go furtherer than you will. Farewell and hold to your purpose and may the blessing of elves, men and all free folk go with you."

Kirito decided not to comment that he left out the blessing of Hobbits and Dwarves… and thankfully, so did Gimli, though not without a slight glare.

"The Fellowship awaits the ringbearer," Gandalf said.

Personally, Kirito thought this was all a little overdramatized, but went with it and watched as Frodo walked to the front of the group and exited Rivendell first, Gandalf at his side.

"Mordor Gandalf, is it left or right?" Frodo whispered to the wizard, which Kirito picked up with his hearing skill. He hid a smirk at the question as it was a bit humorous. Frodo really had no idea what he was actually doing, did he?

"Left," Gandalf replied, so Frodo turned left and the rest of the 10 followed him. They headed out and crossed the bridge and out through the hidden passage. As they walked, Kirito remembered the first leg of their journey, according to Gandalf, said that they would hold this course for 40 days, west of the Misty Mountains, then they would turn East to Mordor.

They walked, and walked and walked. Several times Kirito thought how much easier this would be with cars, or you know, transport crystals (which had all disappeared from his inventory upon SAO's deletion since everywhere they could go was destroyed), but never complained. The scenery was cool and this was good exercise, even if it did get a bit boring and tedious after a while.

Out of the group, most of the tensions were with Boromir- well, besides the irrational racial one between Gimli and Legolas anyway. He seemed most susceptible to the rings power, but was holding out, and had even become rather close with Merry and Pippin. He was a bit brash as well, but most people in this world were. As the days of constant company traveling together went on, the tensioned eased a bit.

Everyone had to admit, Kirito was a bit of an enigma. Most of the time, he didn't talk much, but when he did it was either something useful or something sarcastic, but he wasn't usually unpleasant unless you were on the receiving end of the sarcasm.

His lack of social skills did show. As did his lack of team work in most areas.

One night, the needed some meat and were tracking a deer, and instead of using his sword, hunting knives or Legolas's or Aragorn's bow, he picked pulled out a small, slender needle like dart object about 3 inches long from his coat and charged it with his energy until it glowed white-orange. Then with a small flick of his wrist, the dart flew through the air and embedded itself in the deer back of the head/neck where the brain stem connected the brain to the rest of the body, killing it quickly and quietly.

They ate well the next few nights.

A few days later, they were resting on the grassy/rocky mountains just a few miles south-west of the Caradhras Mountains. Sam was reheating the last of the deer meat in the shape of sausages and passing the servings around, Legolas scouted the area around them with his elf eyes and Boromir taught Merry and Pippin some basic sword maneuvers while the others were observing them.

"1, 2, 3," Boromir repeated as they went through the exercise, "Good, again."

"Move your feet," Aragorn reminded them as he nursed his pipe.

Kirito watched the lesson with some interest, as he had always just used the game skills and what he remembered from his Kendo classes before he quit to master swordplay. He had never been taught basics this way even though he was far beyond them now both in game and IRL with or without game skill aid. Two straight years almost constantly sword fighting had given him quite the mental and muscle memory.

In the background, Gimli and Gandalf were saying something about passing thought the Mines of Moria, where Gimli supposedly had family, but Gandalf thinking it was a really bad idea.

"If you're not strong enough to overpower an enemy alone, try attacking at the same time, or rapidly switching out," Kirito offered when Merry got thrown off balance for the fifth time.

They nodded to him, but kept going through the exercise they had been doing. But a minute later when Boromir accidently nicked Pippin's hand with his sword, they followed Kirito's advice full out tackled Boromir to the ground together, dropping their swords in the process. It was rather humorous. But when Aragorn went to go break up the wrestling match, he ended up getting his feet taken out from under him.

Kirito laughed, "Well, I think its safe to say they're getting better."

"Would you like to go around Kirito? We've yet to see you demonstrate your skills," Boromir asked as they managed to climb back to their feet.

Aragorn smirked. He had seen Kirito's skills.

"Uhh, okay," Kirito replied and stood, drawing his blade from the sheath on his back.

All eyes trained on them. Kirito almost used his menu to initiate a duel, but then remembered that he didn't have to here. They stood apart swords pointed at each other, and then they sprung.

The first thing they learned about Kirito's fighting style was that he was fast. Really fast. He did, not that they knew, have the fastest reaction time out of 10,000 people after all.

He was also very sporadic. As soon as Boromir managed to block a strike from the front, Kirito would somehow already be behind him aiming another strike at his spine, to which Boromir had to clumsily stumble and parry manage to block. Kirito also had a habit of not always blocking Boromir's sword, but dancing past it or rolling under it, in order to try throwing Boromir off balance, not that it always worked though. Boromir had skills as well.

Boromir put up a damn good fight. However after a while, Kirito then aimed a swing very strong swing at the tip of Boromir's sword, forcing Boromir to step back and loosened his grip on the blade. Kirito quickly ducked under the sword, got in close and hooked his cross guard – the little T shaped area where the blade connects to the hilt- with Boromir's and twisted. The sword was forced out of Boromir's hands and skidded to the side. The fight ended with Kirito's sword pointed at the Gondor man's chest.

Everyone was quite speechless for a moment. They knew Kirito was good with a sword, but that was…almost scary how Kirito moved and so causally, yet determinedly, like Boromir was an actual enemy.

"That was quite an impressive display," Gandlaf finally said.

"Thanks," Kirito was awkward in reply as ever as he put his sword away. He wasn't used to dueling someone when they weren't an enemy and couldn't use his snarky insults to finish it off.

"Where did you learn skills such as that?" Boromir asked, retrieving his weapon, "You fight as though expecting I had some extreme advantage over you."

"Well…." Kirito didn't really know where to start responding to that, considering his time in SAO, "SAO was kinda…-"

Luckily, Sam spotted something on the horizon before the conversation could continue.

"What is that?" he asked, gesturing to the black cloud-like mass. All heads snapped in that direction.

"Just a wisp of cloud, nothing more," Gimli said confidently. No one else was so sure.

"It's moving fast," Boromir said.

"And against the wind," Aragorn added.

"I don't think that's a cloud," Kirito input.

"Creblin from Dunland!" Legolas suddenly exclaimed.

"Hide!" Aragorn ordered.

Everyone did so, erasing any evidence their party had been there within seconds. Sam dumped water on the fire the others grabbed the bags and pulled Bill the Pony behind some rocks. Kirito stepped between two rocks and into the shadows. And just as everyone/thing was out of sight, a huge swarm of large black birds ripped through the area.

They were like crows, but bigger and faster. They swept the area then kept moving on. Everyone waited at least 45 seconds after they passed out of sight to get out of their hiding places.

"What was that?" Kirito asked.

"Spies of Saruman," Gandalf said with grim confidence, "The passage South is being watched. We must take the Northern path through the Caradhras."

They all turned North, where a rather large and rather snowy mountain awaited them.

 _"_ _How can it feel like summer here but that entire mountain just a few miles away be covered in snow?"_ Kirito thought as they quickly began moving towards the mountains. They reached the base of the path of the mountain within the day and spent the night there.

And in the morning, they began trekking the mountain pass. The snow was almost up to Kirito's knees, but luckily, they all had just enough protection to bear the coldness of the air and snow and they all had decent boots. Well, the Hobbits didn't have boots, but they were okay enough so far.

"We're gonna have to be careful. Weather in higher mountain ranges can go from completely clear to full out blizzard in just a few hours," Kirito said as they walked.

"Yes, but for the moment, this is our only option of passage," Gandalf said.

"There's always the mines," Gimli grumbled, but was ignored.

Luckily, the first day on the mountain was clear and completely uneventful except for once instance where they were going up the snowy hills and Frodo tripped and fell all the way to the back of the part where Kirito stopped his fall and Aragorn helped him to his feet.

Frodo panicked for a moment and his hands flew to his neck, but found the chain around his neck with the One Ring on it was missing. They looked up to see Boromir holding it, having picked it up from the snow where it had fallen from Frodo's neck when he fell.

Boromir just starred at it for a while.

"Boromir?" Kirito called.

No answer.

"Boromir," Aragorn called louder.

"It is such a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing… such a little thing," Boromir said to no one particularly as he seemed to be perplexed by the ring.

"Boromir!" Aragorn snapped louder, getting the man's attention finally, "Give Frodo the ring."

He obeyed, but hesitantly at first. Then he gave Frodo a smile and held out the Ring on the chain. Frodo hastily snatched the ring back and put it back around his neck. He ruffled Frodo's hair and gave them another smile before turning around and walking on like nothing had happened.

Frodo hesitantly walked after him, Kirito and Aragorn joining a second later after exchanging worried glances and Aragorn released his grip on his sword as he had been ready to attack the man.

The Ring was getting to Boromir.

Little did they know as the marched on, the Creblin had reported back to their master.

The next morning when the group awoke, the sky was dark and stormy, but they had to continue on. They couldn't afford to lose all that time they had spent walking up yesterday.

Kirito knew this had to be a bad idea, but he trusted Gandalf's judgement that the mines were more dangerous than the mountain… for the moment.

It was snowing before noon. And that snow only got worse. By 1 o'clock the snow had gone from knee deep to just above Kirito's waist. Gandalf was at the front of the group, using his staff to break the snow in front of them, then Kirito, Aragorn and Boromir packed it down more for the others.

The Hobbits were having the worst time, but Gimli was a close second, but at least he had a bit more stamina, meat on his bones and thicker clothing that helped him overcome the fact that he'd be barley poking the tip of his head out of the snow if the other's hadn't packed it down before him.

At the moment, they were on a semi-narrow path, to one side was a giant cliff and to the other was a large drop off above pointy, snow and ice covered rocks.

 _"_ _Someone's going to get hypothermia or frostbite if this keeps up,"_ Kirito thought as they still had a few days march to get over the mountain, _"But at least this isn't a blizzard yet."_

Legolas, being the nimble light footed elf he was, could actually walk on top of the snow without sinking in. He scouted a few feet ahead, because anymore than 5 feet and the others would lose sight of him as it became increasingly hard to see.

Kirito was just focused on not tripping and falling on his face. Aside from the cold winds and snow, the Ring really didn't seem to like him and gave him a headache whenever he walked next to Frodo for too long, and on top of that, there was some other thing that seemed to be making him more disoriented, but he pushed on determinedly, hoping the others wouldn't notice.

The storm worsened and visibly got lower and lower and the pain in Kirito's head seemed to get sharper as well, more so than what the Ring did to him. If he had been thinking about it, he would have classified the storm they were in now as a blizzard. Boromir had taken to carrying Merry and Pippin while Aragorn held Frodo and Sam for the snow was now too deep and too harsh for them to walk on their own.

"There is a foul voice on the air," Legolas suddenly said.

When Kirito heard that, he tried to listen more closely, and sure enough, there were worlds in a language Kirito didn't quite understand… and now that he thought about it, they were rebounding in his head, making his headache worse.

"It's Saruman!" Gandalf cried.

A sharp wave of pain made Kirito suddenly dizzy, and then the next thing he knew, lots of rocks were falling down from higher up on the mountain, just barley missing the narrow path they were on.

"He's trying to bring down the mountain! We must turn back, Gandalf!" Aragorn called over the storm.

"NO!" Gandalf replied and walked another few steps to the ledge.

Kirito winced as more of Saruman's words of power fell across the wind.

But then Gandalf started speaking the words of power as well to counter the evil voice, and Kirito barly contained the cry of pain that almost escaped his lips. His vision got fuzzy and he became dizzy. Even back home, where he had no pain shock resisters, he had never felt pain in his head like this.

"Kirito? Are you alright lad?" Gimli, who was standing closest to Kirito asked, but Kirito barley heard it.

This got Aragorn's attention.

Just as Gandalf spouted another line of magic words to try and counter Saruman's who began screaming on the wind at that moment, Kirito winced and a small yelp of pain escaped him and Aragorn realized what was wrong.

Just as Aragorn was about to say something to Gandalf when lighting struck the snow above them. Several feet of snow from above rained down on them and completely buried the Fellowship.

As the snow hit them Kirito blacked out for a minute. When he finally came back to his senses and opened his eyes, he was confused for a moment because even though his eyes were open, he couldn't see….

….and he also couldn't breathe. He began struggling to get up through the snow and vaguely heard the others calling his name, but his vision was beginning to get dark…er, again from the lack of oxygen.

At least the pain in his head had stopped. Which probably mean both Gandalf and Saruman were done casting high powered spells… for now.

But the damage of the blizzard was already done and the storm wouldn't dissipate on it's own for several days, maybe even weeks, since it was a natural storm that had been enhanced with powerful magic.

Finally he managed to free his head from the snow and was able to breathe. Someone, which he later realized was Legolas, grabbed his arm and pulled him the rest of the way out of the snow and steadied him on his feet. He nodded a thanks towards the elf and finally noticed that he was the last one to unbury himself. Everyone, including himself, was caked with snow on their clothes and hair.

"We must get off the mountain. It will be the death of the Hobbits. We must make for the Gap of Rohan then take the West Road to my city," Boromir called. Kirito could confirm that the Hobbit's health bars had been declining even since the snow had started falling, in fact, everyone had taken some HP damage from the snow, even Legolas, though once again there were no numbers to tell exactly how much.

"Yes, we must get off the mountain but the Gap of Rohan takes us too close to Isenguard, and Saruman," Aragorn replied and subtly looked at Frodo and Kirito.

Kirito agreed with Aragorn for more than just the Ring's sake. If Saruman had been that powerful from so far away and made his head hurt with his spells like that, Kirito wanted to stay as far away from him and delay any confrontations with him for as long as possible.

Then Gimli made his suggestion once more, "If we cannot go over or around the mountain, let us go under it. Let us go through the Mines of Moria."

At the moment, despite what Gandalf said about not wanting to go to Moria, it was sounding like a pretty good option right now.

Gandalf paused to think for a few long moments, then finally, hesitantly said, "Let the ring-bearer decide. Frodo?"

Everyone – minus Gandalf – looked at Frodo pleadingly.

"We will go through the Mines," Frodo decided almost instantly.

Gandalf looked grim at the decision, but realized they'd never make it over the mountain alive in this storm and with the likely event that Saruman would try to intervene again.

"So be it."

And so, they began trekking back the way they had come. It was a bit easier since they had already stomped down the snow in that direction, leaving a clear pathway, but the snow had already filled in the stomped down area about a foot. They had to move quickly or they would lose their path and have to go from memory and start packing the snow down a lot again.

But at least the pain in his head was gone… and no one seemed to gotten frostbite or any other illness.

The storm didn't dissipate, but was less harsh as they got to lower elevations. And by less harsh, they could see more than three feet in front of them and weren't constantly on a cliff side with a 50+ foot drop and the risk of getting crushed by falling rocks and ice.

It took them a day and a half to get off the mountain. Kirito was surprised that they made it down as quickly as they made it up considering the weather. The Mountain had defeated them.

When they were no longer in mortal danger and the snow was barley falling anymore, Aragorn finally confronted Kirito about what happened.

"What happened?" Aragorn asked as they were finally back down to only calf deep snow.

"What do you mean?" Kirito asked.

"You know exactly what I mean, Kazuto. On the mountain when Saruman and Gandalf were pushing against each other's magic," Aragorn replied. He had taken to using Kirito's real name when he was dead serious and demaded the kid's attention, "You looked like the words of power were hurting you."

"They didn't affect you? I dunno, they spoke and whatever energy the words were giving off kinda hurt my head," Kirito replied, trying to keep this as little of a deal as possible.

"Lad, words of power are not supposed to hurt ye if they not be directed directly at you," Gimli said, reminding Aragorn and Kirito that he was walking right behind him, "And ye were probably the last thing on Gandalf's mind as he was trying to ward of that blasted Saruman."

But Saruman was trying to hurt them.

Kirito knew the entire Fellowship was listening to the conversation. That really wasn't playing into his plan to draw as little attention to the subject as possible.

"Guys, it's fine. It was probably just a onetime thing…. from the cold or something," Kirito tried to sound as casual as possible as he defended himself.

Gandalf, at the head of the group was taking all this in. It had been a very long time since he had met a person who was affected by words of power like this. He had also neglected to tell the rest of the Fellowship that with Saruman's power, the storm at the top of the mountain should have been much greater, but and yet Gandalf's power had been unhindered and that was why he got Saruman to stop making the storm any bigger than it was so quickly when it should have been a battle that very well could have lasted hours if not days.

But still, he had to be sure that what he thought was going on was truly what was going on.

He suddenly turned and said a few words of power loud and clear, staff pointed at the boy. Kirito winced like Gandalf had just pinched him, but that was the only reaction.

"That spell should have thrown Kirito at least 20 feet backwards, not something I normally need words of power to use, but still should have been all the more effective," Gandalf confirmed and marched up to face Kirito, who was still standing firmly on his feet.

"What was that for?" Kirito muttered shaking, the rest of the small amount of lingering pain from the pinch his brain had felt (though not nearly as sever as during the storm) when the words sounded, then leaned backwards when he noticed how close the old wizard was standing to him.

"What?" Kirito asked cautiously.

Gandalf frowned then muttered another few words. Some snow sticking to Kirito's coat sleeve patterned itself into a circle and Kirito didn't wince or feel any pain at all.

"What?" now he was actually curious

"It seems, we have a Dinendal Elensar in our presence," Gandalf said, analyzing Kirito.

"A Dinendal Elensar, are you sure Gandalf?" Legolas said.

"What's a Dinendal Elensar?" Kirito asked, 100% lost.

"What is a Dinendal Elensar, Gandalf?" Sam echoed, it seemed the Hobbits were just as confused as Kirito.

"I thought those no longer existed," Aragorn said.

"That's cool, but can someone tell me what it is?" Kirito said, but again was ignored.

"I have not known one to exist for a very long time, but it seems that old forms of magic can still arise in unexpected places," Gandalf replied to Aragorn.

"Gimli?" Kirito asked, giving up on getting Gandalf or Aragorn to tell him what was going on.

"I cannot tell ya lad," Gimli shrugged.

"It's someone who malicious magic does not work on, or at least has the effects of the malicious magic directed at them is greatly lessened, only being redirected to a smaller pain centralized in the mind," Legolas finally explained, "But the last known Dinendal Elensar died 3,000 years ago… during…"

"Small?" Kirito mumbled.

"During the first war against Sauron," Boromir concluded, "It seems that fate is having its fun with us, providing a new one as the new problem arises."

 _"_ _Or it's got something to do with the Pain Shock skill I mysteriously gained when I arrived here, or maybe something to do with how I couldn't feel most physical pain while in SAO, or something like that. Why would I have this form of magic if I'm not even from this world?"_ Kirito thought, _"Yeesh. New unique skills appearing, just like my dual wielding. Why me?"_

"This may play to our advantage against Saruman. But we will discuss it later, for now, we must move," Gandalf said.

"Yes, onto the Mines of Moria," Gimli announced with some glee and they began walking. Aragorn clapped Kirito's shoulder and gave him a reassuring nod before walking on ahead.


	6. Chapter 5

They finally reached the bottom of the mountain where snow seemed to be non-existent and the warmer weather was welcomed by everyone. They went down into the lower rock base of the mountain in search of the entrance to Moria, but apparently dwarf doors were invisible when closed so it was going to be a challenge to find them, to which Legolas pointed out to probably annoy Gimli. It worked.

They finally came to the area the entrance was supposed to be at nightfall. A large smooth surface in a dark rocky area between the mountain base and a small lake.

Gandalf approached a seemingly blank wall and muttered something under his breath as he ran a hand along it. He looked up to the sky as the moon came out from behind the clouds. Kirito was impressed when the moonlight hit the rock surface and several lines appeared, outlining some fancy doors with what looked like trees as well as some writing in a script Kirito couldn't identify at the top. So much for them being hard to find.

"It reads, the Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak friend and enter," Gandalf read.

"What do you suppose that means?" Merry asked.

"It's simple. If you are a friend, speak the password and the doors will open," Gandalf replied simply then put his staff on a place on the door dramatically shouted some words in the language Kirito still couldn't understand a word of.

And…. Nothing happened.

Gandalf looked perplexed, and tried a different combination of words, but the doors remained unchanged. Then he tried pushing on the doors, but still, they did not budge a single millimeter.

"You sure you know the right password Gandalf?" Kirito asked with a half amused tone.

Gandalf sent the 16 year old a glare and tried again. 10 minutes later, he was still trying to get in while the rest of them setting down for the possible long wait. Aragorn and Sam removed the items Bill was carrying and sent him on his way since caves were no place for a pony. Kirito scanned a few of the items into his inventory while Sam and Aragorn divided up the rest among the group.

Kirito was a bit sad to see the pony go and hoped he would be alright and did remember the way home like Aragorn said he did. Bill was the only one here who didn't bug him about his abilities or his past. Plus, horses and ponies were cool. He hadn't been able to be near once since he was 8 years old when he and his family went horseback riding on a family vacation.

Meanwhile, Pippin and Merry were seeing how far they could throw rocks out into the lake. When Aragorn noticed, he quickly grabbed Pippin's arm, preventing him from throwing another rock.

"Do not disturb the water," Aragorn warned cryptically.

Meanwhile, again, Gandalf had finally given up on trying to guess the password and sat down next to Frodo on the rock saying that it was useless.

"It's a Riddle," Frodo said suddenly standing up, but everyone except him and Gandalf was focusing on the water, where several small waves that couldn't have been caused by Pippin and Merry's rock throwing were forming.

"Speak "Friend" and enter. Gandalf, what's the Elvish word for friend?" Frodo asked.

"Mellon," Gandalf replied, and no sooner than the single world left his lips, the doors to Moria swung open.

Kirito smirked and shook his head. It was so stupidly simple yet something you had to think hard about to understand.

 _"_ _Wait… why use elvish word for friend instead of the dwarvish one? This is a place built by the dwarves, wasn't it?"_ he thought, but decided to leave it be.

This got the rest of the Fellowhship's attention and they grabbed their things and stood up and entered the Mines, Aragorn and Boromir looking back at the water the whole way, but as they crossed into Moria, they allowed themselves to look forwards away from the water.

"Soon Master Elf, you will enjoy the fabled hospitality of the dwarves," Gimli began boasting to Legolas, "Roaring fires, malt beer, ripe off the bone meat. This, my friend, is the home of my cousin, Balin. And they call it a mine. A mine," he said with amusement.

Kirito really wasn't getting the fabled hospitality of the dwarves vibe. In fact, he wasn't getting any safe feelings of any sort inside the mine. It felt closer to one of the dungeons in SAO, maybe even the really calm area right before a Boss Monster or at least a Mid-Level Boss appeared.

Gandalf lit up his staff and the bones that littered the ground became visible.

"This is no mine," Boromir said, looking at the corpses and bones, "It's a tomb."

Gimli then too noticed the corpses that were mostly obviously dwarves and began crying out in anguish. Legolas pulled black tipped arrow out of one of the corpse's torso to ID the design, "Goblins."

Following the other's example, Kirito reached back and drew his sword, arming himself. They were definitely not safe in the Mines of Moria.

"We make for the Gap of Rohan," Boromir said, "We should never have come here."

No one argued for once.

Just as they were about to go, the Hobbits cried out. Something was dragging Frodo out of the mines, having snagged his ankle from the huddle the Hobbit's had gathered into. It was a tentacle from the lake and if they didn't act soon, Frodo would be dragged into the water and drowned, possibly eaten.

 _"_ _Totally called the monster,"_ Kirito thought as they rushed after him.

Sam slashed the tentacle with his sword until it released Frodo and Merry and Pippin pulled him away from the water's edge. The tentacle Sam had injured disappeared back under the surface of the water for a second, then several more tentacles sprang out of the water at once, grabbing Frodo around his ankle, Merry around the waist and Kirito around his arm holding his sword.

"Frodo!" "Merry!" "Kirito!" their various comrades yelled simultaneously and began wading into the water and slashing tentacles to save them, but their progress was slow and the beast raised it's three captives above it's head.

Then the beast's mutant octopus/squid like-head came above the water a bit and Kirito was able to get a clear view of it's HP bar. It had two full bars and surprisingly a name attachment. The Guardian of the Lake and Mine. It was less HP than what most big monsters had, but still a challenge. Especially because Kirito didn't know how much HP the bars each contained. It reminded Kirito of one of the boss monsters he had fought on one of the earlier floors, twenty-something probably.

The beast actually opened it's mouth and prepared to drop Frodo in, but before I could, Boromir cut the tentacle clean off and Frodo was flung away, only caught by another tentacle, which was cut by Aragorn, so the beast dropped Frodo directly into Boromir's waiting arms. The HP dropped a little.

The tentacles waving Merry and Kirito around got more wild, but if Kirito times it right… yes, he managed to drop his sword at the right time so that it fell into his left hand. Then he focused on Merry's tentacle and when he got close enough, he charged his sword with energy and swiped, causing the tentacle to come off cleanly. Merry was dropped into Aragorn's arms.

"Kirito!" Pippin called when he got violently jerked around as a result of hurting the tentacle holding Merry.

Legolas fired an arrow that hit the creature's eye. It roared and it's tentacle spread out, putting Kirito over a deeper area of the water not directly over the creature. He took the chance that the water was deep enough and cut the tentacle holding him and then he was underwater looking at the creature from underneath. Since it's eye was apparently above water, it didn't see him swim directly under it. The creature may be too large for his sword to reach anything vital- but he could cause pain and weakness.

Meanwhile above the surface, the creature was about to re-pick up Frodo as well as Boromir, who was still holding Frodo.

When it reared back in pain and one of it's health bars-not that the others could see it- fizzled out of existence and the second one was quickly reduced to the yellow-green zone, but didn't go any lower.

"Can you see him?" Gimli asked, trying to spot Kirito, but the water was too dark and too disturbed to see under it. It didn't help that Kirito was always wearing dark clothes.

Then Legolas spotted the dark haired boy pop up just a few feet from shore and grabbed him. Whatever he had done while under the water had hurt the creature enough to give them time to escape. The still drawn sword was noted.

Kirito got to his feet and ran with Legolas and the others into the mine. The creature recovered and used its remaining tentacles to pull itself up and out of the water, but the doors collapsed on it when it tried to force its way into the cave after them.

The monster's screech faded and Kirito saw the other HP bar quickly deplete and fizzle out as the rocks collapsed on its head, killing it. They were left in pitch darkness, trapped inside Moria.

A second later, Gandalf lit the light on his staff, giving them a decent amount of light in the cave.

"We now have but one choice," Gandalf said, "We must face the long dark of Moria. Be on your guard. There are older and more foul things than orcs in the deep places of the world."

They started walking after making sure everyone was okay, Gandalf in the lead, as he had the only light and the most knowledge of the mine's layout as Gimli had never actually been here.

Kirito pushed his wet bangs out of his eyes and followed Gandalf, semi-annoyed when the hair just fell back in his face as it always did.

"Quietly now, it's a four-day journey to the other side," Gandalf informed, "Let us hope that our presence goes unnoticed."

As they walked into the mines, the caverns got bigger and grander. The path became a narrow 3 foot wide path where they had to walk single file through the mostly hollowed out mountain. There were corpses here and there, as well as some old log books, some mining tools and every now and then Kirito spotted a harness that someone would once have used in order to hang from the side of a cliff to mine from the steep walls.

The path wasn't all just flat walking narrows, some of the stair cases were nearly vertical and more than once they had to cautiously climb the side of a steep wall with few hand holds to reach the other side of a broken pathway.

Kirito was now happy they turned Bill lose before going in. Otherwise they would have just had to abandon him after only the first two hours of walking in the mine. At least if he was roaming free above ground, he wouldn't have to be abandoned then starve to death alone in the dark.

As they walked, Gandalf gave some background information about Moria.

"The true wealth of Moria was not in gold or jewels, but in Mithril." Gandalf's staff shined a big brighter, and several glittering lines on the walls on the mine appeared, making the area light up even more for a moment.

"Bilbo had a set of Mithril Rings that Thorin gave him," Gandalf continued.

"Oh, that was a kingly gift," Gimli gasped.

"Yes. I never told him, but it is worth more than the value of the Shire," Gandalf replied.

"They must have been pretty good friends for him to give Bilbo and item like that," Kirito commented, even though he remembered the details of the story from when Bilbo told them (being Kirito and the Hobbits) back in Rivendell. He also recalled something about Mithril being incredibly light, but harder than diamonds, making it the perfect armor if you can get enough to make chain mail out of it. Kirito recalled several times in SAO when having anything like Mithril would have been a literal lifesaver.

"Yes, indeed they were very good friends," Gandalf nodded and faintly smiled at the memory of Thorin and Bilbo as they continued on. They walked for a few more hours then found a relatively good place to set up camp for the night.

Kirito volunteered to take first watch. He always did so, hoping to prolong the dreams about Asuna and SAO as long as he could. There had been a lot of terrifying shit in that game, more than many of the other players had even known about. Perks of being a solo player, right? Kirito had begun to feel lucky that there had been little gore graphics in that game, but even so, SAO left its mark on him and everyone else who had been in the game.

After all, 10,000 seems like a really big number in some cases, but like with how children at school learn hundreds of people's name in their grade and community, Kirito knew the names of several who died in SAO, having met both in game and even a few IRL, even if they weren't personal relationships. It still a bit of a shock and sting when you realize you knew someone, talked to someone who died even if you hadn't ever even spoken more than a few words to each other.

Kirito was also glad that he was never much of a screamer, so the worst that had happened while on the quest was when he would suddenly jolt awake with his heart racing about one billion beats per second.

Maybe Bilbo was right, and writing it down would help ease his mind. But he didn't exactly have the time or resources to do that at the moment.

None of the other Fellowship members had seemed to notice his PTSD-like nightmares or his denial of PTSD, or so Kirito thought. None of them had talked to him about it and he hopped it stayed that way. He could have PTSD when he got home. He had a job to do first.

So, he took the first watch, extending it as long as he could get away with, then finally let Aragorn take over and prepared himself for whatever his mind was going to recall from the death game that night.

Kirito thought Aragorn must have a 6th sense or something to sense when it was time for his shift and woke up almost naturally most of the time. Maybe he just afraid that Kirito would stay up all night. The first time he was given watch while he and the Hobbits were still traveling to Rivendell, Kirito didn't wake Aragorn up for his watch until a nearby animal had made a loud enough sound to wake the entire group up, and by then, the night was more than halfway over and Kirito was supposed to have let Aragorn take watch hours earlier.

"Sleep well," Aragorn said as Kirito laid down.

"Try to," Kirito mumbled almost inaudibly.

It was ALMOST inaudibly seeing as Aragorn's ears might have well have been pointed like an elf's.

Aragorn smiled lightly as Kirito went to sleep. Kirito would probably be very embarrassed if anyone were to mention it, but he often looked like a young child when he was asleep. 16 was still pretty young, hardly considered a man in many places, but peaceful sleeping Kirito looked more like a 6 year old than 16 year old.

Of course, that was only peaceful sleeping Kirito, which was like about the first hour or so of Kirito's sleep cycle.

And then the nightmares came and his peaceful sleep would become riddled with worry and fear and sorrow. Aragorn was surprised that the only noise he made was the occasional whimper and on rarer occasions, he would mutter a few words. Usually the generic "No," or "Hang on," or "I'm Sorry." or "Stay Away!" or "I'm Sorry," or something similar parried with a name like "Asuna," "Klein," "Sachi," "Yui!" "Agil," "Diavel!" "Kuradeel" or a few others, but those were the main ones. But he never full out screamed, only once did he even reach a normal talking sound level.

Aragorn often wondered who all these people were. He knew the girl, Asuna, was one of Kirito's very close friends when he had been trapped in that other world.

Though he suspected they had been more than friends from the way he brightened up the few times he talked about her. P robably still a newer couple seeing as he hadn't admitted their relationship to others yet, but he recognized the look in his eye from the way Aragorn was told he looked when speaking about or with Arwen.

Aragorn knew several people who had gone through nightmare inducing events, but it was rare to see it in someone so _young_.

Kirito wasn't the only young one to have gone through those trials though. Aragorn recalled a conversation from the first night they had set out together as the Fellowship of the Ring:

 _They had been lightly talking amongst themselves as they made camp for the night. Gandalf had seemed relatively pleased on how far they had gone from Rivendell on their first day of travel. They rested and ate and soon it was time for sleep. And with sleep for most of the Fellowship came first watch for one of them._

 _"_ _Who takes the first watch?" Boromir asked his companions._

 _No one responded immediately, so Kirito shrugged and volunteered after a moment of silence. Boromir had thought the teen and been joking and chuckled._

 _"_ _You would fall asleep within the first hour, child," Boromir said with his chuckle._

 _"_ _Again with the 'child' thing?" Kirito deadpanned, as Boromir had been bugging him that he was too young to be on the quest before leaving Rivendell. In all honestly, Boromir called Kirito 'child' or 'boy' more than the called him Kirito_

 _"_ _You are a child, you're merely 14."_

 _"_ _16, Boromir… still failing to see why that's relevant to taking a watch," Kirito sighed lightly as he helped Sam clean up the plates they'd used for dinner and put them away._

 _Kirito didn't understand why Boromir didn't want him on first watch. Back in SAO, he had taken first watch every time- the few times it had happened- when he had to spend the night outside a safe zone with other people. And when he was on his own- which was most the time- he never had trouble pulling all-nighters when he needed/wanted, both in-game and IRL. Sometimes he had been so busy fighting monsters and stuff he'd forget meals and accidently pull all-nighters._

 _"_ _Kirito is fine to take first watch, he won't fall asleep. If anything, he'll stay up all night until one of us naturally wakes," Aragorn had grumbled._

 _"_ _That was one time," Kirito pointed out, as Aragorn had made him swear not to do it again. Gandalf looked amused in the background._

 _"_ _I still think an elder would be a better choice for first watch," Boromir had grumbled._

 _"_ _It's not like you're that much-" Kirito had begun to say, but stopped mid-sentence, "Oh right, yeah, you are more than a few years older than me. Never mind."_

 _"_ _How in the world would you manage to forget that?" Frodo had asked with a small hint of amusement. The large age difference between Kirito and Boromir… well Kirito and anyone in the group, even the Hobbits, was very obvious to see._

 _Kirito shrugged nonchalantly, "Most of the people in SAO were either about my age or at least within 10 years within my age. Age wasn't really relevant in there unless you were like a really little kid."_

 _The entire Fellowship stopped and starred at Kirito for a moment, and after a few moments realized that Kirito didn't even realize how strange of a statement that was. He acted like it was a completely irrelevant fact. He seemed to be the only one not catching on that this was now more than just a time-passing side conversation._

 _"_ _Kirito… what was relevant in there if not age?" Legolas asked._

 _"_ _Skill Level, Strength," Kirito shrugged, "Experience."_

 _Boromir smirked, thinking he had a trump card, "Experience comes from age."_

 _"_ _In reality, yeah. But SAO was a virtual world that was literally programmed and created over the course of about 5 years. Unless you count programmed vague fictional backstories Akihito put in for a few game play reasons, it was a completely blank slate history wise. No one in there had any experience in that world until the game was launched two years ago. Everyone started at level one at the same time and leveled up at different paces depending on how well or how willing they were to complete the game tasks. Besides, out of the 10,000 of us in there, there were less than 300 players over age 30," again, Kirito's tone sounded like this was not a shocking fact. The others were shocked by his bluntness of the situation, as if those low numbers were no big deal._

 _In the Fellowship, Kirito was by far the youngest. The next youngest was Pippin, who was 28, 12 years older that Kirito and considered pretty young by Hobbit standards, and the next youngest was Merry at age 36, twice Kirito's age plus 4 years. Still young adult- by Hobbit Standards- but 6 years over the 30 mark that less than 300 people had been in in that world._

 **(BWT, those are cannon ages… at least according to Google. Pippin is 28, Merry is 36, Sam is 38, Frodo is 50, Boromir is 41, Aragorn is 87 (looks young and lives very long due to magical bloodline stuff), Gimli is 139, Gandalf is about 2019 and I think Legolas is 2931. Hobbits have their coming of age thing at age 33 (official Hobbit adulthood and old enough for inheritance) according to the books)**

 _"_ _So young," Gimli had breathed, but Kirito didn't hear. They may not have known much about Sword Art Online, but they knew it had been very dangerous, and to have so many people under the age of 30, in an inexperienced world just made the danger even more real._

Aragorn agreed with Gimli… and to an extent, Boromir. Kirito was too young to be having nightmares like that, too young to have been fighting for his life for the past two years and too young to be on this quest. He was 16 dammit.

But it happened and he was here and had proved to be helpful and probably wouldn't leave even if they tried to abandon him- which they would never do, obviously.

Aragorn kept an eye on both the area around them and on Kirito. He'd never had to resort to waking Kirito up from a bad nightmare, but if it ever got too bad, he'd help the boy, but for now it was best to let him deal with it until he needed someone. He knew Kirito would eventually.

A few hours later, Aragorn went to sleep as Legolas took the third and final watch of the night and would wake the others when it was time to get up, eat, pack up then move on.

And that's what they did. Legolas roused his fellow Fellowship fellows and Sam made a quick breakfast for everyone. Then they started moving again.

They walked for several hours through winding tunnels and climbing and such. Every now and then, Gandalf would stop and look around the area before leading them on. Kirito was getting a bit concerned as each time they stopped, Gandalf would take a little longer to lead them in the supposedly correct direction. They walked all day, then found a suitable place and set up camp once more and slept a few hours and moved on once more and repeated.

On the fourth and supposedly final day in the mines, after climbing another set of pretty much vertical stairs, the came to a relatively flat area other than a few boulders, that branched off in three different directions. One straight, one to the left and down a staircase and the third to the right and up a staircase.

Gandalf frowned and looked around the areas then towards the three different passage ways. And then said the one thing no one wanted him to say;

"I have no memory of this place."  
 _"Well shit,"_ was Kirito's first thought.

They decided to 'take a break' and got a fire going since they were probably going to be there for a while, possibly overnight if Gandalf did not remember the way within a few hours- none of them hoped it would come to that. They did not wish to spend any more time than they had to in the Mines/Tomb of Moria.

Kirito never thought he'd miss SAO's dungeons, where you could almost always just teleport out if things got to hairy as long as an anti-teleportation trap wasn't in place.

Plus, SAO's dungeons rarely took more than a day to travel across unless you were purposely staying inside, which no one in their right mind would ever do.

After ten minutes, they made some lunch. The food was eaten quickly, but Gandalf still did not choose a direction. Aragorn pulled out his pipe and sent a subtle glare in the wizard's direction every now and then.

"Are we lost?" Pippin asked Merry quietly.

"No. Shh," Merry replied.

"I think we are."

"Gandalf's thinking."

….

"Merry?"

"What?"

"I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry. We just ate. Now shh."

Frodo's eye suddenly caught on something on the cliffs below them and scrambled to the edge for a better look. Kirito frowned and followed the hobbit's gaze and saw something moving the shadows. Frodo went to warn Gandalf. Kirito kept watch on the creature following them while they talked.

"There's something down there," Frodo whispered hastily to the old wizard.

"It's Gollum," Gandalf replied.

"Gollum?"

"He's been following us since we entered the mines."

Kirito tuned their conversation out after that and tried once again to locate the creature, who was disappearing and reappearing among the lower level rocks often. At one point, Gollum looked straight up at Kirito and scowled. They made eye contact, and what Kirito saw in the creature's unnaturally large eyes was anger and pain and longing for the madness of the ring. Kirito pitied him, but had no time to dwell on it.

As they starred at each other, it was almost clear they were telling each other something: Kirito would kill it if it came anywhere near them, and Gollum would kill anyone who got in the way of his Precious.

However, Kirito came to the conclusion that it would probably be unwise to waste time chasing the thing back through the mines attempting to kill it for following them. The thing slipped back into the shadows after showing Kirito's its teeth. Kirito tried activated his night vision skill so he could see it, but it had already fled his field of vision. The thing was fast.

Suddenly a hand was placed on his shoulder, he looked up to see Aragon behind him.

"It's best not to stare. It may provoke him," the man lightly whispered in Kirito's ear. Kirito nodded slightly.

"Oh, it's that way," Gandalf suddenly said out of the blue, catching everyone's attention.

"He's remembered!" Merry said gladly.

"No. But the air doesn't smell so foul down here," Gandalf said, standing in front of the left most tunnel with stairs leading down into darkness, "When in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose."

Kirito wasn't entirely sure about the nose thing, but followed Gandalf and the others down the steps. They went down several flights of stairs for a long time until they finally came out into a larger cavern they could not see all of.

"Let me risk a little more light," Gandalf muttered to himself and let his staff glow brighter, illuminating the cavern to be a great hall with many beautifully crafted- if worn, cobwebbed and dusty- columns that went about a hundred feet into the air to reach the top of the hall.

"Behold… the great realm and Dwarf-city of Dwarrowdelf," Gandalf announced, making Kirito relived that their guide now knew where they were.

"There's an eye opener, and no mistake," Sam said quietly, and the others could only nod in awe.

The hall was huge. Rows and rows of columns everywhere. With just the sheer size, of the place, not to mention the detail on the columns, it must have taken hundreds of years for the dwarves to build it all out of the mountain. It almost looked like it had to be programmed to look so amazing in Kirito's opinion.

They began walking through it, eventually gravitating along the rightmost wall of the hall. Since entering the hall, the Fellowship had been in silence. Suddenly, Gimli let out a loud gasp and ran through an open door along the side of the hall.

"Gimli!" Gandalf called after him, but the dwarf did not return to the group and went through the doors, which had several corpses of dwarves around it by the way. The only ones they'd seen since the hall's entrance.

Kirito ran after the dwarf, followed by the others. The gamer was surprised to see that inside the room there was a single beam of pure sunlight streaming into the room and onto a large, stone rectangular suspiciously coffin shaped box.

Well, from the angle of the sun at least they finally knew what time of day it was. Probably later in the morning, between ten and eleven o'clock.

"No," Gimli said upon seeing the box inside the room. There were a few more corpses in there, one leaning against the coffin, as well as multiple weapons scattered about and some torn book pages as well.

"Oh no," Gimli cried again, falling to his knees before the coffin as the other's streamed in.

The other filtered into the room. Gandalf approached the coffin and read the inscription on the top, "Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria…. He is dead then. It's as I feared." Gimli continued to sob in the background.

Kirito felt a pang of sympathy for Gimli. This Balin dude was his family. It must hurt to find that he was dead probably about as much as what Kirito felt when the Moonlit Black Cats died.

Gandalf handed his staff and hat to Pippin and turned to take some really old log boot out of one of the dwarf skeleton's hands. Some of the pages fell out upon opening.

"We must move on. We cannot linger," Legolas whispered.

"I have a feeling whatever did all this is probably still in the mines," Kirito added.

Gandalf read out of the log book, _"They have taken the bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums, drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A Shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out….They are coming."_

This books words made the entire Fellowship feel uneasy. Something big was in these mines. Maybe even something High Level Boss Monster big. Kirito shuddered at the thought.

At that moment, a loud banging filled the air, startling everyone. Kirito, as well as Aragon and Boromir reached for their swords, Legolas notched an arrow.

"FOOL OF A TOOK!" Gandalf yelled harshly at Pippin, who had disturbed a skeleton sitting on the well and made it fall, bangs and echoes following it down, probably reverberating throughout the mine. If there was anything here, which there probably was, it knew they were there and would likely seek the source of the noise. Pippin winced.

 _"_ _Well, shit,"_ Kirito though for the second time in the mines.

"Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!" Gandalf scolded, taking back his hat and staff. Kirito couldn't argue that what Pippin did was rather stupid, even if accidental. They were likely to run into trouble now that whatever else was in here was on alert.

And alerted something was.

Faint booming sounds filled the air not ten seconds later. The sounds of running feet, screeches, war cries and drums followed soon after. And they were getting close.

"Frodo, your sword," Sam said, and Frodo partially pulled the blade out of its sheath to revel the blue glow.

"Orcs," Legolas confirmed, the sounds of several of them approaching growing louder and louder.

Boromir ran to the rotted wood doors and looked out. A second later, three arrows were imbedded in the door, just missing his head.

"Get back, stay close to Gandalf!" Aragorn ordered the hobbits.

Boromir and Aragorn closed the door. Boromir then informed them, "They have a cave troll."

 _"_ _Well shit,"_ once again was Kirito's thoughts.

They got to work barring the door with the stray axes, spears and swords around the room that once belonged to the dwarves. They were old and probably wouldn't last long, but it would buy them a little preparation time.

Everyone drew their weapons and the door began bulging inwards and the orcs began pounding.

Kirito was probably the calmest out of all of them. SAO threw wave after wave of monsters at him all the time, which he had to take solo for a large portion of the last two years. It would be nice to get back into fighting again. Not that this was a good situation but, hey, just think of it as grinding, just with the only reward being he got to live.

"Let them come," Gimli proclaimed, standing on top of Balin's coffin, brandishing his ax, "There is one Dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath."

Holes were broken in the door, so Aragorn and Legolas sent to work as the first wave of defense, firing arrows into the holes to push back the front line orcs. After they got a few arrows fired, the doors fell in completely, and Kirito got his first look at orcs. They were as gross as had been described to him, looking vaguely human, but extremely grimy, and had grey and greenish skin, extremely long pointed ears and all kinds of extreme deforms and sometimes horns and their teeth were atrocious.

Everyone jumped into the fray and suddenly it was 10 against a small army. Luckily, they seemed to be similar to the hordes of monsters Kirito fought in Sword Art Online, not very smart, and so he took several down easily, the only difference being that they left behind bodies rather than shattering into polygons and they smelt really bad.

Kirito momentarily wondered if he would still shatter into polygons if he died, but didn't have time to dwell.

Despite the situation, Kirito couldn't help but think that this would make a great game sequence, which was also not something he had time to dwell on as another orc charged at him, spikey club thing raised above his head.

Kirito changed his sword till it glowed blue with energy and set about cutting any orcs down who dared approached him, which was a lot considering their low intelligence levels.

Suddenly that cave troll Boromir mentioned earlier decided to make an appearance.

It was huge with thick blueish grey skin and a collar with a chain around its neck. The poor orc trying to hold the chain got smashed. It also had a nice big spikey club to smash things with.

Legolas fired an arrow at the thing, but it hardly made a dent in the monster's HP bar. It tried to smash Sam, but he dove under its feet and to safety. He and the other hobbits ran for cover behind the row of pillars along the right wall. Then the cave troll tried to smash Gimli, but destroyed Balin's stone coffin instead.

Legolas kept the troll distracted as it unsuccessfully tried to whip him with its chain leash while everyone else dealt with the dwindling number of orcs entering the room. Sam discovered that a frying pan was a very efficient weapon. Kirito smiled at his comment of "Getting the hang of this" and slices another Orc's head off.

It was strange being able to deliver one hit kills all-HP-down, even with a weak connecting strike, since in SAO all that mattered were numbers and you could literally get sliced all the way through your body and still be on your feet. These things went down when you hit a vital spot, just like in real life. Strange concept to Kirito after all this time.

Then again, that also meant that would apply to Kirito too, so he made sure to carefully remember he couldn't take damage so casually anymore to get into an upper hand position.

Suddenly, Kirito found himself fighting the Cave Troll while the others continued with the orcs. The troll's HP was down maybe 1/6th or so. It took a swing at Kirito but he jumped out of the way and rolled under it's legs and with a green glowing sword, took a swipe at its thigh. It roared in pain, but its skin was too thick and the attack barley made a dent in the HP bar.

The beast turned to face and try to smash Kirito again, but once again, Kirito rolled and sliced the other thigh this time. They repeated this dance, roll, and slice, turn, smash attempt, roll and repeat for a few moments, very slowly chipping at the HP bar. The cave troll didn't seem to be to smart.

Until it turned before Kirito could slash again and picked him up, gathering both of Kirito's arms uncomfortably in one large hand and making Kirito drop his sword. Kirito lashed out, kicking at the thing, but it was no use. Luckily, Legolas came to his rescue, slicing the flesh in its armpit, which seemed to be significantly more vulnerable than other places. A few streams of dark blood tricked down its side, but it only seemed to piss the cave troll off more.

Kirito was dropped to the ground and picked up his sword. His HP was okay so far. He was still in the green and had 16500 out of 18500 HP, still well in the green zone. Smaller HP depletion here seemed to be based more off stamina directly relating to injures than anything. Probably better for survival than a solidly defined number.

The troll suddenly turned his attention back on Kirito, having gotten bored trying to grab Legolas and kicked him. Kirito hit a wall, but luckily not too hard. His HP fell to 14500, but he would be okay. He got up and immediately was occupied by an orc with a mace.

The cave troll suddenly seemed to gain an interest in the hobbits and went after them, Aragorn called Frodo's name in warning, but everyone was occupied by a new wave of incoming orcs to get to the cave troll and protect Frodo, who was currently playing a game of run around the pillar.

But then the cave troll won said game and Frodo found himself trapped in a corner. Luckily Aragorn got there just in time and poked at the thing's chest with a discarded spear while Merry and Pippen threw rocks at its head. Kirito managed to help at little by getting another leg slice in, but was quickly once more occupied by orcs.

Aragorn was suddenly then flung into a wall and rendered momentarily unconscious. While Frodo was distracted trying to make sure he was okay, the cave troll attacked him again.

Once again, Frodo was trapped in a corner, and no one got there in time before the Cave Troll picked up a spear and thrust it into the dark-haired hobbit's chest. It was like everyone froze.

"FRODO!" Someone yelled but Kirito wasn't sure who. He was angry now. He thrust a blue glowing sword into another orc's chest and took its sword. Now dual wielding, he took down even more orcs in record time. Everyone else ran to help Frodo.

 _"_ _Go faster. You have to. Someone just got hurt because you were too slow!"_ Kirito reprimanded himself and more orc blood was spilt, the glow from the swords never faltering. The elders, despite being quite occupied trying to get to Frodo, kept a shocked look on him out of the corner of their eyes.

Merry and Pippin got on the trolls back, everyone started slicing at the trolls legs and body. Pippin was thrown off its back but Merry hung on tightly. A huge arm reached back to pull the hobbit off, but Kirito, now temporarily rid of the orcs in the room charged forwards, and the borrowed orc blade glowed intensely orange and was shoved through the creature's wrist and left there.

It roared in pain, and Merry took the chance up pull on its chain collar to lift its head up. Legolas shot an arrow up through its neck and into what could be considered its brain. The troll's HP bar instantly depleted to zero. It collapsed, dead, finally.

The room was quiet for a moment before everyone rushed to a collapsed Frodo's side.

Kirito suddenly frowned. Frodo's HP bar was still there. It was in the mid-yellow, but the majority of that damage was from the fight fatigue and strike blocking. Frodo, somehow, wasn't dead.

Aragorn crawled over to Frodo and rolled him over, Frodo groaned. Everyone looked relived, but confused.

"He's alive," Sam said gratefully.

"I'm alright. I'm not hurt," Frodo said sitting up, breathing heavily.

"You should be dead," Aragorn commented breathlessly, "That spear would have skewered a wild boar."

"I think there's more to this hobbit that meets the eye," Gandalf commented.

Frodo then revealed that he was wearing a shirt under his clothing made of Mithril. Kirito smirked. Of course. That must be the set Thorin gave Bilbo, and Bilbo gave it to Frodo to protect him.

 _"_ _Smart,"_ Kirito thought, _"He probably only collapsed from the force of something hitting him too hard like a punch to the gut. Hopefully that Mithril stuff prevented any ribs from getting broken though."_

"You are full of surprises, Mister Baggins," Gimli commented.

"Pretty handy," Kirito commented, "You're probably still going to have one hell of a bruise, but it's better than becoming a Frodo-kabob."

"Good with words as ever, Kirito," Gimli replied gruffly, but friendly.

The screeching of more orcs filled the air, cutting the happy feeling moment short.  
They had to leave now. Aragorn helped Frodo to his feet and they ran out the door. Gimli cast a mournful look over his shoulder and Balin's now completely ruined tomb. Kirito patted him gently on the shoulder then they were running through the hall of giant stone pillars once again.

Gandalf said they were headed to the Bridge of Khazad-dum, which was apparently the bridge that would lead them to Moria's back door.

Orcs suddenly seemed to spill out of nowhere, and soon what seemed like thousands of orcs were chasing them, covering the floor, walls and ceiling. In less than two minutes, the Fellowship was completely surrounded, bringing their progress down the hall to a complete halt. There were a good few hundred of them. There was no way they could fight them all off. This was bad.

And then there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Literally.

However, this light brought no feelings of hope. It was orange like the light from a huge fire. It seemed to agitate the orcs even more than it agitated the fellowship. Then there was a deep booming sound and suddenly all the orcs began retreating, screeching all the way as the climbed up the pillars and disappearing.

However, despite no longer being surrounded by orcs brought no comfort. They were running from something. Whatever was making that deep booming sound scared them off, which meant it was definitely not friendly.

And it was getting closer to their location.


	7. Chapter 6

The booming was getting louder and the orange light was growing brighter.

"What is this new devilry," Boromir asked.

Gandalf looked incredibly grave.

"Gandalf?" Kirito asked, but there was no response for quite some time.

"A Balrog. A demon of the ancient world," the wizard finally said, barley above a whisper.

 _"_ _Well shit."_

"This foe is beyond any of you," Gandalf continued, then yelled, "RUN!"

Everyone complied. They veered off to the side, running away from the ominous orange light that was getting ever brighter as this Balrog thing approached. Kirito couldn't see anything of it yet, but if Gandalf was this scared, it to be something really bad. He would definitely feel more confident if they had a full strength raid party with them, but they didn't, so running like hell it was.

Eventually they came to a wall with a door in it and begun declining down several flights of stairs, Boromir and Kirito in the lead, Gandalf and Aragorn bringing up the rear, Hobbits "safely" nestled in the middle of Legolas and Gimli.

The stairs suddenly entered a cavern, with a very long drop. At the bottom of said drop were several fires of an origin Kirito didn't want to think about it. Boromir almost fell off at the sudden appearance of a cliff, but Kirito grabbed his arm and only his torch fell over the edge. Gandalf ushered Aragorn to lead them on and that swords were not going to help them at all in this situation.

They turned and continued going down the stairs as quickly as they could, but had to be very careful at the sudden turns to avoid falling to their deaths.

At this point, Kirito could see a long bridge spanning across the large gap. That must be their way out of here.

As they were fast walking down a long strength of stairs with a drop on either side, they came across a break, about 4 feet long, where the stairs had completely broken, leaving a scary looking gap they would have to jump across.

Legolas jumped across first, followed by Gandalf. Behind them, they could head the growling of whatever the hell a Balrog was. To make matters worse, an arrow suddenly pierced the air and bounced off the stone next to them.

Looks like the Orcs weren't totally gone, now having taken positions on a balcony type thing above them and were now shooting arrows and throwing spears at them. Kirito took to using his sword to deflect incoming arrows and spears to keep his comrades from being hit, but a lot of the arrows just missed due to the long distance the orcs were trying to aim. Legolas begin shooting some return fire, making several orcs fall to their deaths.

Boromir picked up Merry and Pippin and jumped, landing safely on the other side of the gap. But unfortunately as he did so, the stone crumbled and on the side where Kirito, Aragorn, Gimli, Sam and Frodo still were, widening the gap from 4 to about 7 feet. A really long jump.

Legolas continued to fire arrows at orcs. Kirito deflected two arrows with his sword that otherwise would have hit Sam's head.

Aragorn threw Sam over the gap then turned to do the same to Gimli. Gimli however, protested this, saying that no one throws a dwarf. He proceeded to jump himself, and nearly didn't make it, only Legolas grapping his beard (ouch) kept the stubborn dwarf from falling to his death.

The stairs crumbled again, another large section of the stairs fell into the abyss, nearly taking Kirito with it, but Aragorn grabbed his arm and hauled him up.

Kirito then had to deflect another few arrows.

They now had about a 12 foot diagonal downwards gap separating them from the others. The orc's arrows weren't helping and to make things even worse, a roar shook the caves, and several stones around the entrance to the stairs fell. A large boulder fell from above and took out a good chunk of the stairs behind them, so they couldn't go back or forwards.

They had to be quick.

Kirito was still busy trying to delfect arrows and was caught off cuard as Aragorn suddenly grabbed him. Kirito half jumped and was half thrown by Aragron. He almost didn't make it. He grabbed the ledge of the stone and dangled for a second, then Boromir rached down and pulled him up.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah," Kirito replied and got to his feet.

The area of stairs Frodo and Aragorn were standing on suddenly broke at the base and started shifting forwards. Aragorn grabbed Frodo and rode the momentum of the sliding stairs and it was just enough to get them to land safely on the other side, just in time for the section of stairs they had been standing on to crumble completely and fall.

They continued to decent the stairs. At least Orcs couldn't follow them over that now gigantic portion of broken stairs.

However, Gandalf still seemed to be extremely worried about the Balrog following them. He seemed convinced that the gap in the stairs wouldn't stall the beast for long at all.

Thankfully, the reset of the stairs flew by without incident, they were out of orc arrow range and soon they were on solid ground, with a wall of fire behind them (what was burning?) and were approaching the bridge.

"Over the bridge. Hurry. Fly," Gandalf urged them on as fast as possible.

They approached the bridge and hesitated only a moment. It was literally only about two and a half feet wide and spanned over a huge drop of which Kirito could not see the bottom of.

Suddenly an insanely close roar reverberated and out of the flames emerged a huge fiery demon monster thing that kinda looked like a depiction of Fiery Satan rose out of the flames.

The Balrog. Where did that come from? Kirito had no idea.

He tried to look at it's HP bar, but his vision was suddenly spammed by dozens upon dozens of full HP bars. Yeah, he wasn't going to be able to beat that.

They kept running and reached the bridge as it chased them.

Boromir and Aragorn, followed by the Hobbits, then Gimli, then Kirito then Legolas, with Gandalf bringing up the rear crossed the scarily narrow bridge. Kirito was very thankful no one here was scared of heights.

They all made it across- wait no, Gandalf had stopped at the halfway point on the bridge and turned to face the demon, who was yet to step foot on the bridge.

"You cannot pass!" Gandalf yelled to the creature.

"Gandalf!" Frodo screamed and everyone halted.

The creature rose up and game off a large display of it's fire. Gandalf seemed undeterred. Kirito looked at the Balrog's HP bars again. There were dozens upon dozens of them. The thing was insanely OP. Surly Gandalf seemed to know about this things insane strength. What in the world was he doing?

Gandalf was still undeterred, "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor," Gandalf said as his staff begun to glow brighter, "The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Undun!"

The Balrog drew a sword made of pure fire out of nowhere. It brought the fire blade down on the old wizard, but the light from his staff seemed to act as a force field of some kind and the fire sword dissipated upon contact. HP seemed unaffected. It roared at him.

"Go back to the Shadows."

The Balrog took a step onto the bridge and suddenly equipped a whip seemingly made of fire.

"There's no way that tiny bridge can hold that much weight," Kirito managed to say.

It cracked it's fire whip.

"YOU. SHALL NOT. PASS!" Gandalf boomed and slammed his staff down on the bridge and there was a pulse of bright white light. The Balrog leaned back but was otherwise undeterred.

The monster took another step onto the bridge. It brought it's whip up, but the bridge broke, right in front of where Gandalf had slammed his staff on it, and the monster fell into the abyss.

Gandalf watched it fall for a moment then turned to cross the bridge. But before he could take a single step, there was a crack, and the Balrog's fire whip came up and wrapped around his ankle. Gandalf was pulled over the edge, his sword and staff fell. He was hanging onto the side.

"GANDALF!" Frodo and Kirito cried and tried to go to his aid.

However, Boromir held Frodo back and picked hinm up to prevent him from going to him.

"Aragorn let go, he hasn't fallen yet, we can still help him," Kirito said as he struggled in the hold the ranger had caught him in.

But even Kirito knew a this point, the bridge couldn't hold any more weight, it was already visibly crumbling. Gandalf was going to fall.

Gandalf seemed to know this too.

"Fly, you fools!" was all the wizard said, and then let go. Gandalf fell into the abyss. He was gone.

"NO!" Frodo cried as Boromir picked him up and carried him away from the bridge. Aragorn practically dragged Kirito along, still keeping both the boy's arms in a firm hold as if he expected the black swords-man to rush back and jump after the wizard.

More orc arrows suddenly started flying at them as they accended another flight of stairs.

And then suddenly, they were outside, the sudden daylight practically blinded them and they ran out onto the outside rocky area.

Once they were out and off the front steps, Aragorn released Kirito's arms and Kirito fell to his knees, along with the hobbits. Boromir seemed to have to hold Gimli back from rushing back into the mines, Merry held onto the collapsed and loudly crying form of Pippin, Frodo and Sam cries and sat on the rocks, Legolas seemed to be lost in limbo and Aragon stood with his head bowed for a moment.

Kirito hadn't moved from where he'd fallen to his knees, beside Aragorn. He couldn't help but once again remember the Moonlit Black Cats. Watching them all die. Sachi's last words to him before she disappeared, accepting her fate just like Gandalf just had (though considerable gentler).

God, he swore he'd protect his friend. And now Gandalf, arguable one of the most important people in the Fellowship, was dead.

Aragorn was the first to recover, wiping off his sword and putting it away, he called to Legolas, "Get them up."

Legolas seemed to numbly comply, rousing the Hobbits.

"Give the, a moment, for pity's sake!" Boromir snapped.

Aragorn replied as he grabbed Kirito's arm and hauled him to his feet, "By nightfall these hill will be swarming with Orcs. We must reach the woods of Lothlorien. Come Boromir. Legolas. Gimli, get them up. On your feet Sam.

"Frodo," he called to the hobbit, who was on his feet, but starring numbly into the distance, "Frodo."

After a second or two, Aragorn finally got everyone moving, climbing down the gently grey rocky slope of the mountain, crossing a small stream and heading towards the forest not far from the base of the mountain.

They ran/jogged for an hour or two. The rocks gradually disappearing into flat grass. No one talked as they ran, all still in shock, Aragorn leading the way. Eventually they reached the edge of a forest of large trees and slowed to a walk.. The entered the forest.

Kirito didn't know what kind of vibe the forest was giving him, his thoughts too muddled to really pay much attention to his surroundings, but it wasn't an extremely hostile, nor an extremely friendly vibe. He also vaguely got the sensation of someone watching him as they walked through the towering trees.

"Stay close, young Hobbits, boy. They say that a great sorceress lives in these woods. An Elf-Witch of terrible power. All who look upon her fall under her spell…and are never seen again." Gimli warned.

Frodo suddenly looked very disturbed, frantically looking around him, but seeing nothing.

Kirito definitely knew he was being watched now. And not by whatever Gimli was going on about an Elf-witch. His detection skills picked up several people close by, but only barley. If he hadn't been put on alert by Gimli's little comment, he probably never would have noticed them.

"Well, this is one dwarf she won't ensnare so easily. I have the eyes of a hawk and ears of a fox," Gimli continued.

"There's an arrow in front of you face," Kirito commented blandly.

"What? That's preposterous Kirit–oh," there was in face, an arrow being pointed literally an inch away from the red-haired dwarves face. In fact, the entire company found themselves surrounded by elves, who seemed to have come out of nowhere, arrows ready to fire point blank. Kirito put a hand on his sword and Legolas drew an arrow in response.

"The dwarf breathes so loudly, we could have shot him in the dark," a fair haired elf, who seemed to be in charge of the group of surrounding elves, said as he stepped forwards. Gimli growled in response.

Aragorn gave the elf a small bow and said something in elvish.

"Aragorn, these woods are perilous. We should go back," Gimli said. Aragorn shot him a look.

"You have entered the realm of the Lady of the Woods. You cannot go back," the elf replied.

"You sure about that," Kirito mumbled, really not liking having so many arrows being trained on him when his superior game level wouldn't keep him from being instantly killed anymore.

"Quite, child," the elf replied smugly, "Now come. She is waiting."

They didn't seem to give them much choice but to follow. And while the arrows were no longer drawn, Kirito had a feeling the elves were still very much prepared to kill them at a moment's notice.

They were lead through several twists and turns in the forest and Kirito was pretty sure they double back once or twice. The Elves seemed to be pretty intent on making sure that they would feel lost in the woods and therefore unable to escape.

Soon, they came upon a series of stairs built high into the trees. It was dark by the time they climbed up a set of spiraling stairs and into a large platform that seemed to literally have been grown out of the tree. An outpost of some sort lit by a few small lanterns.

Oddly enough, it was here were they were properly greeted by the light haired elf, apparently named Haldir. He exchanged some words with Legolas and Aragorn in elvish first.

"So much for the legendary courtesy of the elves. Speak words we can all understand," Gimli demanded gruffly.

"We have not had… _dealings_ with the dwarves since the dark days," Haldir replied icily.

"And you know what this dwarf say to that?" Gimli replied then spouted off something in dwarfish that anyone could tell was an insult.

Aragorn sharply turned and grabbed Gimli's shoulder, " _That_ was not so courteous."

Haldir simply turned away dismissively. He briefly acknowledged Boromir, as the son of Gondor, then frowned upon turning to Kirito.

"Who are you? You have a strange…aura about you," Haldir said, looking the child up and down.

"It would be wise not to answer that question," Gimli called, but was paid no heed as he received a warning jab from Aragorn's elbow.

"Haldir, this is Kirito. He is from a far land," Aragorn replied. Kirito kept a neutral face, hiding his confusion.

 _"_ _What does he mean by a strange aura? Is it because I'm still technically a digital avatar of myself? But how would he know?"_

Haldir simply moved onto the Hobbits.

He froze upon seeing Frodo.

"You bring great evil with you. You may go no further," he proclaimed solidly. Frodo looked guilty, thinking that this was all his fault.

Aragorn took to talking to Haldir, apparently trying to make him agree to their passage. Meanwhile, the rest of the Fellowship could only sit and wait for the outcome. Aragorn appeared to be practically pleading, though only Legolas could understand the conversation.

After Boromir had finished trying to comfort Frodo, he moved onto Kirito, who was sitting on the ledge with his legs dangling over. The Gondor man sat next to him.

"Gandalf did not die in vain. He sacrificed himself so we may go forth," Boromir began.

"That doesn't make it okay," was Kirito's almost numb reply.

"You shouldn't burden yourself with the dead."

"Easier said than done."

Before the conversation could continue, Haldir announced, "You will follow me."

They did so wordlessly. They spent the night on another nearby outpost and the next morning they got up and continued to walk through the large forest. They were probably still using tactics to make sure that they would never find their way out if anyone decided to try and run off.

They walked all day. Haldir seemed very eager to announce his home, the "center of elvendom on middle earth" upon their arrival. By the next night, just after the sun had set, they reached their destination and begun to come upon several dwellings and structures within the trees Once again, they climbed a huge staircase that spiraled up around a giant tree up to a platform in front of one of the largest, and quite beautiful, elven tree dwellings.

Suddenly, two people appeared at the top of another stair case, one male and one female elf, both fair haired and pale skinned with blue eyes. The she-elf was arguably one of the most beautiful people Kirito had ever seen. Light seemed to radiate off her, quite literally. The fellowship seemed to be in awe of her arrival. This was Lady Galadriel, as Haldir announced earlier.

Suddenly Kirito felt something brush against his mind, then a soft female voice reverberated through his skull gently.

 _"_ _Kazuto Kirigaya. You have come so far without ever meaning to. You are so strong, yet long to become the best, as to protect all those you love and care for. Do not worry young Kirito. The one you love will soon return to you, and in the end, you will play a vital role in several conflicts that will protect all those you seek."_

The presence in his mind was gone just as soon as it came. The she-elf's eyes sky blue eyes momentarily connected with his Onyx, and then moved on, scanning the entire Fellowship.

The male elf next to the she-elf spoke out loud first.

"The enemy knows you have entered here. What hope you had in secrecy is now gone. Nine there are here, yet ten set out from Rivendell. Tell me, where is Gandalf? For I much desire to speak with him. I can no longer see him from afar."

Kirito wasn't sure when Galadriel started speaking but soon, the words, "Gandalf the Grey did not pass the boarders of this land. He has fallen to Shadow."

Legolas seemed to gather the courage to speak, "He was taken by both Shadow and Flame. A Balrog of Morgoth. For we went needlessly into the net of Moria."

The grief was quite clearly written on everyone's face. It was suddenly very hard to keep eye contact with her.

"Needless were none of the deeds of Gandalf in life," Galadriel replied, "We just do not yet know his full purpose….do not let the great emptiness of Kazhad-Dum fill your heart, Gimli, Son of Gloin. For the world has grown full of peril and in all lands love is now mingled with grief."

"Without Gandalf, hope is lost. What now becomes of this Fellowship."

 _"_ _We keep going, just like always,"_ Kirito thought determinedly, but could not trust himself to open his mouth without breaking down. However, Galadriel did briefly look at him, with almost a smile on her lips before addressing the entire Fellowship.

"The quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail to the ruin of all….Yet hope remains while the Company is true. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Go now and rest, for you are weary with sorrow and much toil. Tonight you will sleep in peace."

With that, Galadriel all gave them another award-winning gentle smile, and then ascended back into her home. A rather delux tent was set up for them, complete with plush pillows, soft blankets. Kirito placed his coat in his inventory for now.

Suddenly a gentle singing in elvish filled the air. It was a beautiful song, despite the fact that Kirito could not understand it.

"A lament for Gandalf," Legolas commented.

"What do they say about him?" Merry asked.  
"I have not the heart to tell you. For me, the grief is still to near."

Outside, Aragorn tried Boromir to rest, as the Gondorian, despite everything, could not seem to find it in him to relax. Apparently Kirito wasn't the only one who gotten a private message in his brain. Boromir's was about Boromir's father and hope, but it was hard to Boromir to comprehend, because of how much pressure his father put on him to make everything perfect and such. And then sentiment about Gondor.

Meanwhile, Frodo went on a walk, and encountered Galadriel. In her Mirror eh saw many things; the distraught faces of his friends, the Shire, just how the left it and then the images for violent. The shire burning as orcs chased and imprisoned the poor defenseless hobbits, huge battles, countless people dying, and the shire became huge and desolate, and then the flames of the dreaded Eye of Sauron.

When he returned to camp, he spoke no word of this.

…

Meanwhile, Kirito sat next to a small stream near their given tent. He had brought up his menu and had finished doing an inventory check, everything was in order. For a moment his eye strayed to his Relationship status. Asuna's name still appeared. He smiled a little. He'd only noticed it recently, but since Asuna's name hadn't been erased, she had to still be alive. That made him incredibly happy. It was good to know that someone was okay.

Thinking about Gandalf was making him miss his old friends. Klein, Ageil _,_ Silica and Lizbeth, his little sister/cousin Suguha who was back home IRL. And of course, Asuna.

As he was scrolling, he decided to bring up the maps he'd scanned in to review. He wondered if the elf people knew he had been mapping out the entire forest as they walked through it. He also had Moria Mapped out. Just in case an all.

His finger accidently brushed against the Aincrad file he had and the maps of Aincrad appeared. The Hobbits, Legolas and Gimli, who had been watching him fiddle with his Menu since he opened it, took interest.

"Where's that?" Pippin asked when the overall hologram of the Aincrad Castle appeared.

"That's Aincrad, where SAO took place."

"The place where you spent the last two years?" Merry asked.

"Yep," Kirito replied and zoomed in a little.

"It's a building?" Gimli asked confused.

"Ehh, kinda. Technically. The Interior didn't really look like a building most of the time though."

"Why is the building only three fourths highlighted?" Legolas asked.

"Because we only made it clearing to the 75th floor before we encountered Kayaba, we never got to map out or see the final 25 floors. Lucky too. With the difficulty of the game rising so quickly near the end it probably would have taken another few years and a lot more lives to get out if we hadn't managed to end it there."

"Why would it take you so long just to clear one floor of a building?" Merry asked confusedly.

Kirito selected the first floor of the castle and enlarged it.

"When I say floor, I mean like, entire ten-ish mile radius of ground to cover," Kirito replied, "Just finding the location of the next boss monster we had to beat in to progress always took at least a few days."

"A few days? Wouldn't you have been out sooner if each floor only took a few days to complete?" Legolas asked.

"I wish," Kirito sighed, "The game was designed so we couldn't just automatically go for the Boss Monster. We needed to upgrade our equipment and increase our level. The game got harder as we progressed, which meant way stronger minor monsters in the way of the Boss, plus extremely strong Boss Monsters. If someone tried using level 1 gear, on like even just, Floor 10, their chances of survival were practically zero. And if we didn't Level up, we don't have as much HP, which depleted really quickly on the higher levels."

"What's HP?" Merry asked.

"Heath Points. Literally a life line. When players go up again monsters in the game, any damage we take lowers our HP. If they take more damage that HP and it hit zero before they could heal and replenish their HP, well, permanent game over. Level 1 players start with 250 Max HP, and each time they leveled up, the max HP points would increase. Essentially, the higher the level, the safer. But we always had to keep leveling up because monsters on the higher levels could do more damage. And of course if we wanted out, we had to go clear said higher levels. Survival all depended on your numbers, regardless of actual stamina, for better or worse."

"That's awful," Legolas said.

"Designed by a psychopath with a god complex," Kirito shrugged.

After that little note, they decided that was enough talk of that, and settled down to sleep. The Lothorien Forest seemed to have a magic calming effect or something, because it was the first time Kirito fell asleep quickly and sleep completely soundly, without a single thought or nightmare about Sword Art Online.

They awoke the next morning, well rested, and while the grief of Gandalf's death was still there, it had been soothed greatly. Then they prepared to depart. Apparently they were going to take canoes down the Great River for the next stretch of their journey, which would save a lot of time compared to walking.

They were also given gifts before they departed. Each Member of the Fellowship was given a cloak with a Green Leaf fastener pin, promised to keep them warm and camouflaged from prying eyes. While they were green, they seemed to blend with the environment like a camo blanket, and oddly also didn't clash with anything the fellowship wore.

They were also all given a supply of Lambas Bread, an okay tasting cracker-like bread said to be able to fill a stomach with a single bite. Handy for when they weren't going to be in good hunting grounds.

Pippin ate four for breakfast.

In addition, they were all given an individual gift.

Legolas got a new bow, made of the finest materials. Frodo got a phial of starlight, said to help him on the quest somehow, Sam got a fancy elven rope incapable of fraying or breaking or untying when it wasn't supposed to, Merry and Pippin each got a dagger to aid them as well as a belt. Gimli, upon and awkward request, got three golden hairs from Galadriel's head, now kept in a small locket around his neck.

As for Kirito, he was given a sword, of fine Elf making, but unlike most Elf swords, it was made to be heavy. How Galadriel knew that Kirito both preferred heavier blades _and_ was a master dual wielder, he didn't know, but he was grateful. It was the same length and weight as his black sword, and made of a very light colored silver metal. The Fellowship, having seen him Dual Wield back in Moria, approved. It was given a dark brown sheath and crossed his other sword across his back, as once done with his Dark Repulsor blade.

Kirito didn't know what Galadriel gave Aragorn, because he didn't see him carrying any physical object, but he seemed to be grateful.

And then it was time to set out.


	8. Chapter 7

In the early morning light, after the gifts had been given, they got into the three canoes the elves provided. Frodo, Sam and Aragorn in one, Boromir, Merry and Pippin in the second and Legolas, Gimli and Kirito in the third. Elves stood in boats and around the river bank, seeing them off as they paddled away.

Galadriel raised a hand in goodbye as they left. Kirito returned a small smile.

And soon they left the forest behind them. Legolas, being their boat paddler, easily took the lead down the river. Gimli didn't seem to like water too much, and was constantly trying to backseat – well he was seated in the middle but anyway – drive the boat and was constantly worried that Legolas would make a wrong stroke or Kirito would lean a certain way too much and was going to send them all into the River.

"Relax, will you. The current isn't even very strong and the shore is right there," Kirito said.

"Kirito, I prefer very much not to take a swim at this hour," Gimli snapped back.

Aside from that, the first few days of flowing down the river were peaceful. They covered a lot of miles a day, then slept on a nice riverbank for the night. But as the days went on, Kirito became a little angsty just sitting in a boat all day. He got an earful when he joking rocked the boat during one of Gimli's "paddle more carefully!" rants.

However, eventually began to feel like someone was watching them. Constantly. Every now and then, they would hear a noise of disturbance from somewhere along the passing shore than put everyone on edge. But there's no way anything could be following them on foot, or even on horseback on the shore and be able to keep up with them on the river.

Luckily when they entered a canyon in which the river had carved, they became more at ease as it would be very hard to follow them in there.

As they came around yet another bend in the river, who giant statues loomed above them. Statues that were taller than the canyons walls, made to look like two armored people hold out a hand in the STOP gesture.

"What are those?" Kirito asked in awe.

"The Aragonath. They depict the kings of old, helped carved right out of the walls by the dwarves you know," Gimli replied.  
"They are Aragorn's kin. Kings of the past to which someday Aragon will well live up to the legacy of," Legolas added confidently. Aragorn's kin. The Aragonath. Huh. Naming parallels.

Everyone watched din awe as they passed the ginormous statues.

Less than a quarter mile after passing the Aragonath, the river widened into a huge lake. At the other end of the lake, Kirito could see the rising mist and faint roaring of a waterfall. They're journey on the river was at an end.

Not far from the waterfall, they paddled over to shore. From here, they went on foot, but which direction was the question. Which side of the river do they walk from? Most said to Mordor.

"We'll cross the lake at nightfall, hide the boats and continue of foot," Aragorn said as they begun making camp. They planned on traveling more in the evenings and at night for safety reasons, "We approach Mordor from the North."

"Oh yes?" Gimli said then continued, "Just a simple matter of finding out way through Emyn Muil, an impassable labyrinth of razor sharp rocks. And after that it gets better. Festering, stinking marshlands as far as the eye can see."

"That is our road," Aragorn replied simply, "I suggest you take some rest and recover your strength, Master Dwarf."

"What's there to recover. We've been sitting in a boat for the past two weeks," Kirito mumbled. Aragorn gave him a look and then went to go get more stuff out of the boats. Legolas went to talk to him.

"Yes and we've all discovered how you are when you sit and do nothing," Gimli mumbled, recalling how Kirito would rock the boat for amusement.

In all honesty Kirito couldn't blame him. Razor sharp rocks and a stinky probably disease-radiating marshland didn't sound very appealing to walk through.

"Where's Frodo?" Merry suddenly asked. Everyone looked around, not seeing their ringbearer. But someone else was missing too.

"Where's Boromir?" Kirito asked, seeing the man's shield and pack leaning against a tree with him nowhere in sight.

"I'll go look for them," Kirito replied as he finished putting a bundle of blankets in his inventory.

"Don't stray far. I sense something…strange about this place," Legolas warned.

"Yea, sure thing. BRB," Kirito replied. The Fellowship frowned. Kirito and his weird Other World sayings.

Kirito walked further into the trees looking for any signs of the Hobbit or Boromir.

"Yo. Frodo? You around here? You shouldn't leave camp without telling the others," he called, but got no response.

Kirito continued to walk, calling Frodo's, and occasionally Boromir's name. He continued to climb the hill. As he did so, a feeling of dread settling in his stomach.

"Kirito?" a hand on his shoulder almost made him jump. He turned to see Aragron, "Have you found him."

"No sign of either of them."

"Let us search together. Legolas, and now I too, feel something may be amiss here. You have felt it as well."

"Yeah."

The two dark haired men continued to search. Eventually, they reached the top of a hill, where stood a small structure made of stone. Frodo suddenly fell off the top of it.

"Frodo?" Aragorn asked as he approached the clearly shaken Hobbit.

"You okay?" Kirito asked. Frodo scrambled back from them, like he was afraid of something.

"It has taken Boromir," Frodo stated.

"Where is the ring?" Aragorn asked urgently and stepped forward.

"Stay away!" Frodo cried and ran into the safety of the stone thing.

Aragorn pursued, "I swore to protect you."

"Can you protect me from yourself?" Frodo replied.

"Frodo, you don't have anything to fear from me. The ring doesn't like me remember. You know this. We won't try to take it," Kirito said, standing back a little to give the Hobbit some space, hoping to reassure him.

Frodo uncurled his hands, revealing the ring, not on the chain. Damnit did he put it on to get away from Boromir or something? He spoke more to Aragorn than Kirito, "Would you destroy it then?"

Aragorn took a step forward and reached towards Frodo's opened hand. Frodo frowned, seeing that behind the Ranger, Kirito was suddenly clutching his head. It was the ring, trying to call Aragorn in and push Kirito as far away as possible. Frodo simultaneously felt Pity, Jealousy and a sense of Smugness towards Kirito, though why the last one, he couldn't explain.

But most of the Hobbit's attention was towards Aragorn's hand, getting closer to his own.

But rather than taking the ring from his opened hand, which could have happened to easily, he closed Frodo's fingers around the ring and knelt down to his level.

"I would have gone with you to the end. Into the very fires of Mordor." Aragorn stated as he pushed Frodo's hand containing the ring away form him and into Frodo's chest.

But they all sensed Aragorn's want for the ring. If he was starting to break, how long until the other's followed. It was getting harder for everyone to be around the ring so much. And so, they knew what had to happen next.

"I know," Frodo replied, "Look after the othes. Especially Sam. He will not understand."

Aragorn was about to reply when he suddenly frowned.  
"Go Frodo!" he said and stood, drawing his sword.

Frodo looked at his glowing sword.  
"Run. Now, Get to the boats and cross the river. And whatever you do, don't look back," Kirito said and Frodo nodded and ran for it. Kirito reached back and drew his two blades, the light grey was contrasting nicely with his black sword.

Just as they walked around hhe corner of the stone thing, a hords or orcs – not these weren't orcs. They were bigger and better equipped.

Orc level 2 then, Kirito decided.

Aragorn and Kirito jumped into the fray.

They were no doubt thougher than the Orcs they fought in Moria, but they still fell quickly to Aragon Dual wielding and Aragorn's harsh slashes.

"FIND THE HALFLING!" the one seemingly in charge called.

"See you in a bit, I'm going to draw them away from Frodo's direction," Kirito said.

Aragorn nodded.

Kirito began leading them in the opposite direction Frodo ran, a large portion of orcs followed him.

He killed several of them, then made his swords glow so they could see him.

Kirito killed wave after wave of the upgraded orcs.

"Mr. Kirito!" a voice called, and Kirito found himself pushing Sam to the ground to avoid getting shot by arrows.

"Where's Mr. Frodo," Sam said worriedly as Kirito cut down three orcs. More could be seen coming nearer.

"Getting to Safety, from everyone."

Sam processed the sentence. Then tried to run, bur Kirito caught his arm and hauled him behind a tree out of the way of more arrows.

"I must go with him! I swore I'd never leave him alone," Sam yelled as he struggled it Kirito's grasp.

"We all did Sam, and we came as far as possible, but this is something he's gotta do on his own."

"YOU don't understand. I can't live, knowing he's in danger and all. Do you know what that's like?"

Sam knew he struck a chord when Kirito suddenly froze.

"You do don't you. That girl, Miss Asuna, the one you talk about sometimes. She felt the same bout you didn't she? Merry and Pippin told us about her from over hearin you conversation an all."

"Yeah, and then she technically died!"

"BUT you survived because of it! Mr. Kirito please! Frodo can't do this alone! I won't let him. That ring no good to his brain. Someone has to be there to keep him sane and to help him survive! I can't let him go alone, I'd never forgive myself for staying behind!"

A painful memory flashed in the boy's mind.

 _"_ _So you want to go to someplace dangerous alone and you expect me to stay here, someplace safe? You know what would happen if you didn't come back? I'd kill myself. I'd never forgive myself for staying behind, so what would be the point in living…. I want to stay with you….."_

That conversation flashed through Kirito's mind, Asuna's voice resonating in his mind.

Kirito swiped his hand down. A second later, Sam found himself holding two red healing crystals.

"I'm not sure if you'll be able to activate them, but you might as well take them with you just in case. If nothing else they could make good trading items or at least something to throw. Go quickly and keep as low to the ground as possible. You'll have to be fast if you want to catch him," Kirito said.

"Thank you, Kirito," Sam said, then as Kirito charged the next round or incoming orcs, Sam scampered off back towards the river to catch Frodo.

Kirito jumped back into the fray. His dual wielding skills at maximum. He swung and cut down orc after orc, not taking any damage. All that was on his mind was kill these worthless minion monsters who were trying to kill his friends. He couldn't let anyone else die.

After several minutes of fighting, he heard a horn sound. That was Boromir's war horn. He was in dangers. Kirito cut down everything in his path, heading towards the repeated sound of the horn.

Kirito suddenly found himself in a ring of orcs. He changed his swords up and started slashing at anything close to him, but more kept coming.

Suddenly aid came in the form of Legolas and Gimli. He saw Aragorn run past, continuing towards the sound of Boromir's horn.

A few seconds later the ring or orcs was dead and the continued to run to their friends aid.

But it was to late. Kirito saw Aragorn suddenly chop down the leader upgraded orc dude who had used to have a bow. And then below, he saw Boromir on the ground, four arrows in his chest, barley sitting up, Merry and Pippin screaming in the screaming in the distance as they were being carried off by orcs.

The orcs retreated, having gotten the Halflings they thought they were coming for.

"No," Kirito said in shock, as he raced down to Boromir, Aragorn already there, trying to tend the arrow wounds.

"They took the little ones," Boromir managed to choke out.

"Hold still," Aragorn ordered, "Kirito, can you heal this with a crystal."

"Yes. But we need the arrows out first," Kirito replied, his last red crystal already in hand.

"Frodo! Where is Frodo?" Boromir asked frantically.

"I let Frodo go," Aragorn said quietly.

"Then you did what I could not," Boromir sounded extremely guilty, "I tried to take the ring from him."

"The ring is beyond our reach now," Aragorn replied.

"You don't have to worry about it anymore. The ring won't mess with your head anymore, Frodo can handle everything," Kirito added.

"Forgive me. I did not see. I have failed you all." Boromir said, "Remember me as I was before the ring's madness."

"No Boromir," Aragorn replied, "You fought bravely. You have kept your honor."

"Stop talking like your going to die. Hold still, we need to get the arrows out," Kirito said urgently, "Then I'll heal you and-"

"Kirito. You are likely to need that crystal for Merry or Pippin, or likely for you or the others. Waste it not on me," Boromir interrupted, "Leave the arrow."

"Boromir," Aragorn interrupted, grasping one of the arrow shafts.

"Leave it," Boromir insisted, one of his hand each grasping one of Aragorn's and Kirito's, "It is over for me. The world of men will fall. And all will come to darkness and my city to ruin."

"I do not know what strength is in my blood but I swear to you I will not let the White City fall, nor our people fail," Aragorn said.

"Our people," Boromir said, liking the sound of that. He still had a grasp on Kirito's arm, preventing him from trying to use the crystal.

"Yes, your people. You can see them again. Just let us heal you," Kirito insisted.

Boromir smiled gently, letting go of Kirito's arm to grasp his sword to his chest, so he could die with it in his hands, "There is no need Kirito." Then he turned his attention back to Aragorn, "Take care of Kirito and the others, help our people, help Merry and Pippin. Do what I cannot," his voice was getting weaker, his breathing more painfully labored.

"Nononono, Boromir, just hang on for a few moments okay," Kirito said. The situation was reminding him far too much of Diavel during the Floor 1 Boss Fight.

"Kirito, I will not survive you pulling the arrows out. Leave them. Leave me. Aragorn will take care of you, and the others." Once again, he turned to focus of Aragorn, "I would have followed you, my brother…my captain… my king."

And with that, the light faded form Boromir's eyes. Kirito couldn't bring himself to try and look at Boromir's HP bar, already knowing that it was empty.

Boromir was dead.

Kirito lost another friend. Damnit couldn't he save anyone!

"Be at peace, son of Gondor," Aragorn said, and kissed Boromir's brow, a formal goodbye.

They held a small funeral for Boromir. They carried his body back to the shore. One of the boats was alreadt pulled to the other side. Good so Sam and Frodo made it alive.

They placed Boromir in one of the canoes, his sword and broken horn laying across his chest and removed the arrows. They said their goodbyes and then let the canoe drift over the waterfall. Boromir probably deserved a better funeral, but this was all they could do for him now.

Kirito looked down. Doing his best not to cry. Damnit couldn't he save _anyone!_ No. Not Diavel, not Sachi or the other Moodlit Black Cats, not any of the other SAO players, not Godfree, not those killed by the Skull Reaper, not Asuna, not Gandalf, not Boromir. Pippin and Merry had been kidnapped. Hell, technically he couldn't even save himself. What was the point of him beign supposedly so strong if he could never stop anyone from dying!

But they had no time to talk or dwell.

Legolas pushed their remaining boat into the water.

"Hurry! Frodo and Sam have reached the eastern shore," the blond elf urged.

Aragorn had no reply.

"You mean not to follow them?" Legolas said.

"Frodo's fate is no longer in our hands," Aragorn said solemnly.

"Then it has all been in vain," Gimli said, "The Fellowship has failed."

They looked to Aragorn for any sort of instruction. Aragorn placed his hands on Gimli and Legolas's shoulders, Kirito standing between them, and looking at all three he said, "Not if he hold true to each other. We will not abandon Merry and Pippin to torment and death. Not while we have strength left. Now, leave all that can be spared behind. We travel light. Let us hunt some orc."

Aragorn picked up one or two items and sheathed a small dagger. Legolas and Gimli shared a look.

"Yes," Gimli roared with glee.

Kirito grinned, "Well the, Rescue mission go."

And with that, they packed up a small amount of camp and took off running after Aragorn, following the Orcs and their captive friends.

Kirito may not have been able to save the others, but this time _this time_ Merry and Pippin were NOT going to die, he'd be dammed it they did.

Sam and Frodo would be okay. They had each other and healing crystals. Kirito trusted them to get rid of the ring.

Everyone would complete their mission and beat the game.

Of this Kirito was determined.

 **Whelp, there's the end of the first Movie. The second one will be soon to come.** **J** **I like reviews so go ahead and do that and the next set of chapters will be up soon. Did you like it, hate it. Tell me what you all think.**


End file.
